Torn By Thorns
by Mikauzoran
Summary: Sequel to Ivy, Shaman Runaway on mediaminer. Thorn feels that her father, Hao, is too overprotective. When she finally disobeys her dad and sneaks off she bumps into someone who changes her life…and introduces her to her mother.
1. Thorn

Mikau: Hello everyone! I've missed all of you sooooo much! Well, this is Ivy, Shaman Runaway's sequel. It got the most votes, but as soon as I finish this, I will do Judo's story for all my Judo fans. Okay, all you Ivy fans, I warn you ahead of time, the main character: Thorn, will probably do quiet a bit of Ivy bashing. As usual, everyone will be somewhat out of character; no more than usual though. This fic will be somewhat…different. Very different. Even _I _think it's weird. The first couple chapters aren't as good as the original, so bear with me. Hopefully things will get better.

**_Disclaimer:_** I have never owned Shaman King, and never will unless I find out that I'm somehow a long-lost daughter of Takei Hiroyuki. We all know that that will never happen.

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Thorn

I hate my mother. Everyone asks me, "Thorn! How could you hate such a gorgeous and talented woman?" The fact that she is beyond beautiful, and extremely gifted doesn't erase my loathing of her. It doesn't relieve me of all the pain I go through daily, knowing my mother despises me, and regrets even giving birth to me.

I cry myself to sleep most nights silently so that no one hears.

I suppose I hate my mother because I look a lot like her: I have her onyx eyes and short, but dynamite body. My hair is a bit different from hers though. Instead of her fawn brown color, my hair is sort of crimsony-brown, combining both my parents' hair colors. Looking at pictures of her is like looking into some kind of Twilight Zone mirror for me.

Luca thinks he's giving me a huge compliment when he says, "You could pass as her twin, you know." I grin and bear it, but I can feel myself die a little more each time.

It hurts even more when my father smiles sadly, plays with a loose strand of my crimson-brown hair, and sighs, "Thorn, you're beautiful just like your mother…"

I smile back and thank him. He can read my mind, so he knows how much I hate her. I act in a civil manner for his sake.

I wonder if he blames me for her leaving him? He won't even look me in the eye most times because when he looks at me, he sees **_her_** looking back at him. I hate her for what she done to him!

He could have any woman he wanted no matter her age, but he refuses to accept the fact that **_she's_** gone. He's sworn off women because of her; sure he still flirts heavily with any short skirt with a nice pair of legs, and he acts cheerfully enough, but he says he will never start _seriously_ dating again. He's 33, but he only looks like a teenager of 17. He's been wasted on that devil woman.

Hoshi, my older twin sister, says it's our fault that she left; she didn't want to be a mother. She left because she didn't want us. I hate my sister.

Hoshi openly admits that our mother abandoned us, but then she turns around and says in that annoying valley-girl accent, "Gosh she was like beautiful!", "I bet she was wonderful; I sooo totally want to be just like her!" Hoshi is a 'Daddy's girl'. Personally, I think she's such a brown-nosing little slut.

Dad lets her run wild with all sorts of strange men. Whenever my sister goes out at night, she comes home early the next morning. Yet, my father lets her out the door every night saying, "See ya Hoshi; have fun. Use protection." Then he turns around and flat out refuses to let me have even a boyfriend!

She's three or so minutes older, but she's allowed to do so much more than I am. I feel so restricted; so trapped.

Hoshi wears tight-fitting, revealing, stripper's clothing. My wardrobe is loose and sort of baggy. I have mostly pants and giant T-shirts; the one skirt I do have hangs down around my ankles, and all of my shorts are at least knee-length. I swear he buys boys' clothes for me. I'm not allowed to get my own outfits like Hoshi is. All my clothes have to pass my father's inspection before I can buy anything new.

My clothes do nothing as far as complimenting my figure. You can't even tell I _have_ a chest. I look like a longhaired boy; my father looks more like a girl than I do. I'm not even allowed make-up.

Once I had found a tube of bright red lipstick when I was little. It was just lying on the floor up in the old abandoned bedroom, so I put it on.

I was only five; I didn't stop to think of where it had come from, or who it must have belonged to before I had gotten my hands on it. I didn't know it was **_hers._**

I showed my father; he took one look at me, and his eyes started to mist over. He had the most hurt look on his face when he asked where I had gotten the lipstick.

I didn't bother lying to him; he could read my mind, so what would the point be? I told him that I had been in the abandoned bedroom. The one he used to share with my mother. The one he refused to sleep in after **_she_** left him. The one he had specifically told us to stay out of because it was 'off-limits'.

He made me take the lipstick off, and I've never worn make-up since. My dad said it was better that way. It's as if my father doesn't want me to look attractive. I am 16, but he treats me like I'm still 10.

Hoshi has her bellybutton pierced, and two pentagrams tattooed on her: one on her right ankle, and one around her navel. I'm not allowed to 'mark-up' my body like that. My dad got upset when I got even an airbrush tattoo at the beach one summer. He's way more than 'a little' too over-protective.

And yet…I never disobeyed him. I always rebelled against Luca, and Opacho, and Kanna, and Mari and Macchi, and Hane even, but I could never bring myself to go against my father's wishes. Even Hoshi had a hard time defying Dad.

I remember once when I was four: Hoshi and I were out in the rain playing in the puddles and lobbing mud at each other. Opacho told us to come inside and get cleaned up before the mud permanently stained our clothes. At the time, Opacho was in charge of the laundry, so of course he would think of the clothes first.

Hoshi threw a mud ball and hit Opacho square in the face. I was reminded of what a horribly rude person my twin was. Opacho had done nothing wrong, and yet Hoshi had gotten him all dirty. I reminded myself to get her back for him later.

Next Kanna stood out in the doorway, telling us to 'get our butts inside before she came out there and drug us in herself after clobbering us!' Of course, that's not exactly what she said. I had to clean it up a bit, but then again, Kanna's language always needs to be cleaned up.

Kanna was promptly pushed aside by Mari and Macchi. The duo yelling at us not to make a mess when we finally came in. They were the ones who would get stuck cleaning it up, and they didn't exactly feel like scrubbing mud off of the ceiling.

The two were shoved out of the way by Luca, who read out of his huge medical text about all the different types of foreign flues, colds, viruses, sicknesses, and diseases we could get from playing in both the rain and mud combined.

My sister and I ignored Luca. We had had four years of practice ignoring the man, and we were getting to be pros at tuning out his voice.

Next came Hane. It was hard to say no to such a cute puppy, but we resisted the cuteness, and continued throwing mud. Finally Hane got so fed up, he joined us in frolicking in the rain and grime.

I threw one mud clod, intending to nail my older sister in her pretty little face, but the projectile stopped in mid-air and just sort of floated. We dropped our weapons, and my twin and my attention slowly centered on a man standing just inside the doorway of our four-story mansion.

Dressed in a plain pair of old, worn, torn, blue-jean pants, without a shirt on, the man looked no more than 17—nowhere close to his actual age of 1000 and something. He had waist length crimson/mahogany hair, tied up in a ponytail with two long bangs hanging messily in his face. The bangs covered his subduecingly hypnotic dark brown eyes.

My father's followers jumped at his sudden appearance. "Master Hao!" Luca tried to explain to their leader why his children were out in the rain, clobbering each other with mud.

Hao smiled lightly at Luca and the others, saying, "I'm sorry; are my girls giving you trouble again?"

A collective nod from the group.

My father smiled apologetically at his loyal group before stepping out into the rain. It didn't dare touch him. That was an odd thing about my father: the rain seemed to avoid him. It was as if the person who controlled the rain would be angry if Hao Asakura got wet. It seemed so strange that _I _got soaked when he didn't. I was the Allure in the family after all.

Hao smiled down at us as he approached, clearly amused. When he reached us, he knelt so that he would be at our eye level. He quietly studied our dirty faces, and shook his head fondly, gently brushing the mud-drenched hairs out of our eyes. "You do know it's raining…don't you?"

My sister and I suppressed giggles as we nodded in unison.

"Yet you both insist on getting wet and muddy…I will never understand children." Our father rolled his entrancing eyes, and smiled again at us. "Come on in, and we'll get you cleaned up."

He got up, and started to walk away. Once he had gotten about six feet away from us, he looked over his shoulder as a sign for us to follow. Hoshi took a few reluctant steps forward, but I staid put. When my father noticed us not following, his kind tone changed to a firmer one. "Hoshi. Thorn." That was all the coaxing Hoshi needed; she ran to our father's side, and he picked her up, ignoring the mud.

I wasn't as easy to convince.

"Thorn?" Hao's eyes narrowed, clearly displeased at my attitude, but not yet to the point of losing his temper.

"No! I want to stay out here and play!" I whined, determined to fight my father.

A thin layer of flames formed on his skin, but it didn't seem to burn either him, or Hoshi. "Thorn." Those flames only appeared when he was angry. He hated when people disobeyed him. As Shaman King, he was too used to people bending to his will.

"NO!" I yelled childishly, glaring at my father. All the while, tears spilled silently down my cheeks.

The flames on his skin disappeared, and the look of fury in his eyes dissolved. Hao looked sadly down at me, his eyes taking on a far off, and mourning look. "You're so stubborn…just like your mother…" He turned and carried Hoshi back into the house.

My twin looked at me over our dad's shoulder. She glared at me. I could tell by the flames in her eyes what she wanted to yell at me: 'THORN! Look what you've done! You know better than to remind him of Mom! You had better get your butt in here right now and apologize! It's bad enough that we are the reason she left, but then you go and act like her just to make Daddy sad! Shame on you!'

So, of course I ran after them and caught up just as they were about to enter the four-story mansion. I tugged lightly on his pant leg, and Hao looked down questioningly at me, his eyes still showing signs of sorrow.

I looked up at him with pleading eyes and held my hands outstretched for him to pick me up. "D-daddy?"

The mist over his chocolate eyes instantly cleared, and a victorious smirk overtook his face. "That's more like it; let's get you two cleaned up." My father could never stay mad at me for long.

I couldn't disobey my father; he was such a tough guy, impossible to get to, untouchable, but it seemed that my rebelliousness was the only thing that upset him. When I saw that hurt look in his eyes, my heart started to break. That's why I had never gone against him before…until the day that I met Hana. Of course at the time, I didn't know that he was my cousin.

I had never been introduced formally to my aunt, uncle, or cousin; I just knew that they existed. My dad constantly talked of his business trips with Yoh, his brother, so I felt that I knew my uncle's personality from what my father said about him. Whenever Yoh called Hao, Hao would talk to his brother on speakerphone, so I had heard my uncle's voice, but I had never met him in person. I got the impression that Uncle Yoh was a very kind person, but extremely lazy. He was a good Shaman King though, and surprisingly Hao and Yoh worked well together.

As for my Aunt Anna, my mother's older twin sister, all I knew was she was beautiful, but harsh. She had her own business, but I wasn't really sure what it was exactly that she did. I knew very little about Yoh and his family. I didn't even know Hana's name. My father never spoke of my cousin, and on the rare occasion that he did bring my relatives up in conversation, Hana was simply referred to as 'your cousin'. I wasn't really even sure if 'my cousin' was male or female.

It's surprising that my long-lost cousin was the one who brought about the meeting of me and Ivy.

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Mikau: Well? How was it? Kind of a rocky start…there is just sooooo much background info in this fic, and I feel that I'm giving it all to you at once…unfortunately I don't think that there is any other way to write this…sigh. Oh well…I warn you: this will not be as good the original Ivy. I want to thank everyone who reviewed the last chapter of I,SR. Some of the reviews made me cry. I was so happy! Thank you all so much! I can't believe that my work meant so much to some people. It made me really happy. Thank you!

PLEASE REVIEW!


	2. Hana

Mikau: Hello! I am back! Unfortunately, I don't think I'll be able to update this as fast as the original Ivy, but I shall try my best. Oh, and if anyone knows where I could get the original Shaman King episode scripts from the last three episodes, I would really appreciate it. I have all the episode scripts up to episode 61, but I need episodes 62, 63, and 64. Even if you have the subbed version and could possibly type out the scripts and email them to me at mikauzoran at msn dot com, that would be great, because all I get is the stupid English dub, and I'm dying. If someone could please do me this one favor, I would be eternally in your debt. PLEASE HELP ME!

**_Disclaimer:_** I don't own Shaman King. If I did, then I wouldn't have to be begging for someone to supply me with the last three episode scripts. Stupid 4KIDS TV and their dubbie version!

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Hana

"Achoo!" a petite sneeze echoed throughout the onsen's kitchen.

I smiled, smirked rather, evilly at the sneezer. "Sneezy, sneezy, 'Achoo!' Someone out there's thinking 'bout you!" I teased.

A woman, looking about 17 glared up from the table at me. "Honestly Hana…" She rolled her mischievous onyx eyes at me as she gracefully flipped a fawn colored bang out of her face. "You are such a child."

The condescending tone in her voice slapped the smile off my face. I sat down across the table from her and concentrated souly on my unbuttered toast. Normally I didn't care what people thought of me, but her opinion was the only one that mattered. "You sound like Mom…" I sighed sorrowfully; I hadn't seen the teasing glint in her eyes, or the subtle smirk on her bright red lips.

When I was busy with my dry toast she took the opportunity to fling butter at me with her fork. It hit me right in the forehead.

"Don't compare me with my sister." She winked slyly.

I couldn't help but laugh at her childish games. "Don't scare me like that; the last thing we need is another Anna running around!"

I flicked a spoonful of butter back at the woman across the table. Soon our little butter battle turned into an all-out food war.

"Careful what you say, the Ice Queen might hear you!" The brown-haired beauty laughed easily back at me in warning.

"What do I care if she hears?" I ducked as the whole tub of butter soared over my head.

The butter tub just barely missed me, but it hit another target. A blonde-haired, brown-eyed, she-devil target. Both sides immediately ceased fire.

"You two had better clean up this mess before the customers wake up." Anna Kyôyama Asakura, my mother, stood directly behind me, looking extremely pissed.

"Hello Anna!" My partner in crime stepped in front of me, boldly facing my mother. I was in awe of how the brown-eyed woman confronted Anna, all the while, smiling cheerfully as if everything was fine. I silently thanked her for shielding me as I snuck off, away from my mother's rage.

"What do you think you're doing?" Anna calmly eyed the shorter girl as if this was a daily event (which it was.) "Is it really that hard to act your age?"

The younger of the two smiled gleefully and chuckled, "Oh Anna! You know perfectly well that I don't remember my age! What does it matter anymore? I don't look a day over 17, and you know it!"

"Ivy, you are 32 and a half. Start acting like it." Anna glared at her younger sister, and for once my aunt's smile dropped like a sparrow shot out of the sky.

My mother handed my aunt a dishtowel and ordered her to clean up the kitchen. Anna turned on her heel and headed back upstairs.

My aunt dropped to her knees, and her body took on the mechanical motion of scrubbing the floor while her mind clearly wandered somewhere else. The sharp coloring drained from her eyes, and her already fair complexion evaporated making her look deathly pale.

"Ivy?" I picked up a towel and joined her on the ground of Funbari Onsen's kitchen.

"-es?" She muttered, losing the 'y' of the word to the floor.

"I think you're a really great person." I paused to watch her pretty eyes flash a glance in my direction. "Anna didn't mean it that way."

Ivy's eyes, the windows to her soul, look me directly in the face as she asked, "Hana, what are you talking about?"

I gestured vehemently with my hands as I explained: "When Anna told you to 'act your age', she was indirectly hinting that you should take responsibility, and the only thing in your life that you need to take responsibility for is your children. Therefore, what Anna really meant was that you needed to go home to your family, implying that you were a bad mother." I took a breath. "Now, I don't know if you think this way or not, but in most people's opinion, bad mothers are bad people, so in order to cheer you up, I said that you were a good person. In which I was saying that you were a good mother, and the world's greatest aunt, and that I really think that it's your decision whether or not you wanted to go back." Just as I said this, I made an enthusiastic arm gesture with the hand that was holding the wet towel. The towel slapped me in the face, interrupting my speech, and instantly cheering up Ivy.

I smiled sheepishly as she laughed at me. "Wow…nice Hana. Really smooth." She lightly teased. "If you don't get a girl with your looks, you can always win her over with comedy."

"That's not funny." I pouted back at her, wiping the water off of my face.

"Maybe not, but you know what is?" I gave her a questioning glance, signifying my interest. "You are reading too far into things as always. There is no way that Anna meant all that by telling me to act my age." The wide smile faded slightly from her warm face. "Though…maybe I should go back."

I looked down at the wooden floor and returned to scrubbing. I couldn't bare the thought of my aunt leaving us. She had raised me, after all, and she was the one who saved me from Tamao's insanity. Tamao's mental heath had deteriorated over the years, and it just so happens that she was the one whom my parents left to raise me. I think it was the unrequited love she had for my father that drove her off her rocker. Once I was born, Tamao had given up all hope of ever getting with Yoh. I think that's why she hated me so much. But now it didn't matter since she had married Horo Horo and had had a child of her own. A slightly unusual child, but still one of my very best friends.

My thoughts were ripped away from me with the sound of Ivy's voice, "I couldn't go back to him now…it's been way too long. He's probably already found someone else anyway. The twins probably hate me…that or have totally forgotten me and have accepted their new mother as their only mother. Besides…what good am I to him…the way I am now?"

Ivy looked down at her body and sighed. The body was borrowed. It wasn't hers. Ivy's original body was in storage somewhere, and the one she was currently using was only a corpse puppet, created by Anna, Ivy, and Faust. Something had happened to Ivy's original body, making it less than desirable for her to use. I was never exactly told what really happened. For all I knew, she could have gotten a scar on her leg, and didn't want to be seen in public with the hideous thing, so she transferred her soul into a corpse puppet, and ran away from her husband and day old twins. I had no idea why she couldn't use her old body. Ivy was a pretty vain person, so there really was no telling why she did what she did.

"Hey, Ivy?"

"Hmm?" My aunt looked up dully at me, lost in her own thoughts.

"I'm gonna go to Karasumori." The cemetery was one of my favorite hangouts. "I'm supposed to meet the gang there. Okay?" I started to get up, but paused mid-way to see if she'd stop me and make me clean with her. I felt terribly for ditching her, but I had forgotten that I was supposed to meet my friends there at 6:30, and I was going to be late.

"It's only 6:33." She looked back down at her work. "I'm sorry, but it's going to rain soon. I'm afraid that it's going to be a really bad storm."

"Please don't cry…" I begged the sorrowful Allure.

"I'm afraid I can't help it. I've kept these emotions inside for too long, and now they're going to all spill out at once. I'm sorry if the rain will ruin anything that you and your friends have planned." I could see the beginnings of tears in her eyes, and outside, grey storm clouds were rolling in.

And yet, even though she was about to cry, she thought of me. Me and my friends, and she worried that she would ruin our day just because she was unhappy. I was pretty sure she would have held the tears in if I told her the truth that rain would spoil our plans, so I lied.

"No, actually we're not doing anything in particular. I'll make sure we get inside before we all catch colds." I gently smiled at her as I made my way to the door.

"Have fun." She blinked back tears and bid me on my way. "Oh, and be sure to tell your friends about the masquerade party the Onsen is holding this weekend. Anna says the more customers the better." She slipped some business card-sized invitations into my pocket.

"I will. Don't cry too hard Ivy…You're a great mother. You raised me pretty well." I forced a smile at her before slipping out the kitchen door.

"I raised you as an aunt would…not a mother. I may be the 'world's greatest aunt', but I'm a total flop as a mom." The Allure sighed as tears lightly fell from her dark orbs.

My name is Hana Asakura. I am 17 and 3/4 years old. My parents' are Yoh Asakura, the Shaman King, and Anna Kyôyama, the owner of the hot spring resort Funbari Onsen where we live. I finally had the pleasure of meeting my parents when I was six. I know that sounds extremely odd, but it's true.

You see, when I was born, my mother and father had just been crowned Shaman King and Queen, so they had duties to attend to. They left me in Tokyo, and traveled around the world. They couldn't take a baby with them, so they left me. Tamao Tamamura, an old friend of theirs was left to raise me. The only problem was, that Tamao was partially insane. Like I said before, I think she lost her mind right after I was born since she was in love with my father.

I was scared to death of Tamao ever since I was first placed in her arms as a baby. Needless to say, I didn't have a happy childhood. My only escape was when 'Uncle Ryo' took me on adventures. We visited Uncle Ren in China, Uncle Horo Horo while he was caring for his Coltsfoot field, and even Uncle Chocolove in jail. But even with all my little outings, I still spent a majority of my time in the Onsen hiding from Tamao.

For the longest time, until I was about six, I thought that Tamao was my real mother. I had never met or heard of Anna and Yoh. No one bothered to mention that I wasn't really the son of that crazy pink-haired woman. I thought I was doomed to forever be unhappy, and suffer, but then one day something wonderful happened to give me hope in life, and a reason to hang on.

I still remember the day that Ivy came to stay with us: the best Christmas present I ever got.

It was the day after Christmas; I was about two years old. That year, I had gotten nothing from my 'mother' Tamao for Christmas; not that I expected Tamao to get me anything; besides, I was too young to understand the whole principle of Christmas and gift giving. I did, however get various small gifts from my 'Uncles' and 'Aunts', and a small package containing a peculiar clay-like red knife from 'Yoh and Anna'.

It was early in the morning, about six o'clock, but I was up. A faint knocking sounded at the door, and I automatically went to answer it. I pried open the inn's door and peeked at the visitor.

At first I thought that she was a fallen angel; she was so pale and weak looking, but still gorgeous. Her brown hair fell messily on her shoulders, and her dark brown eyes were dull and misty. Her skimpy red top, and short black skirt were wrinkled, and slightly falling off of her. I couldn't help but stare.

Slowly her bright red lips parted, and she spoke, "Hana?"

I nodded, my mouth slightly open in awe.

"Is your mother home? I need to talk to her." The angelic woman leaned heavily on the doorframe.

I nodded again, still unable to speak. Taking a few steps backward, I signaled for her to follow me, if she could. She looked rather shaky, and I was unsure if she could stand by herself, let alone walk.

Yet, even though she was lacking in strength, she followed without complaining. "My name is Ivy Kyôyama. I'm your mother's sister…your aunt; I was hoping that I could stay here at Funbari Onsen with you. What do you think of that?"

I stopped outside the kitchen door and smiled brightly up at her. "I…would like that."

"Hana! Who are you talking to!" Tamao came stalking out of the kitchen in a maddening rage. She hated me, and found any excuse necessary to yell at me. Tamao stopped when she saw who I was with. "Ivy…"

"Hello Tamao." My newly found aunt smiled cheerfully at my 'mother'.

The insanity immediately drained from the pink-haired prophetess. "Miss Ivy! What are you doing here! Weren't you in the hospital just yesterday!" A timid, shy, mouse replaced the woman I had come to accept as my mother.

Ivy pushed her way past Tamao into the kitchen, pouring a cup of coffee for herself, and taking a seat at the table. "Yes, I was at the hospital yesterday. I have twins; two girls; Hoshi and Thorn. They were born on Christmas; December 25th; 12:00, and 12:03 am."

"Why aren't you with Hao celebrating?" Tamao followed Ivy inside the room and took the seat opposite her.

"Look at me Tamao. Does that answer your question?" Ivy placed a small, shaky hand over Tamao's.

"Ivy…your hand…it's so….What happened to you!" Tamao's eyes flickered with horror, and she shivered at Ivy's touch.

"It doesn't matter. All that matters now is that I can't be a mother to those girls, and I can't be a wife to Hao. So I've come here. Are Anna and Yoh still…?"

"Yes…They left Hana with me to raise. I'm sure they wouldn't object to you staying. You can help with Hana; I just can't stand him. Yoh's _son_." The prophetess's eyes filled with the built-up tears she had been saving for the past two or so years.

"It's all right…I understand. Please just don't tell Hao that I'm here." Ivy smiled gently, pleadingly at Tamao, who nodded, as Ivy stood up and walked towards me. "Don't worry about a thing Hana." She smiled gracefully and whispered into my ear. "I'm here for you; I'll protect you…"

So from that day forth, Ivy raised me like I was her own son. Even after my real parents came back to the Onsen when I was six, Ivy staid and played the role of my mother, even if Anna did try to take over her motherly roles.

Anna had returned to take care of the Inn, Funbari Onsen, and me. The business was going well, but Anna still had a lot of spare time. In that time, she, Ivy, and Faust (the inn's resident doctor), worked in a secret underground lab, trying to make a new body for Ivy that would function exactly like her original one. So far all they had come up with were a bunch of corpses that Ivy's soul could be infused with; Ivy's soul could only stay in the body for twenty-four hours at most, so Ivy's freedom was extremely limited. Still, the 'Corpse Brides' as Anna called them (because they were all dressed in wedding gowns for some unknown reason. I think it was because my mother liked the look of them.) were getting better everyday. I tried to help as best as I could since I owed so much to Ivy, but I was never really any help in the laboratory at all.

The years rolled on, I got older, and no real progress was made on the Corpse Brides. Ivy insisted that she couldn't go back to Hao in her 'present state', so Ivy staid with us at the Onsen, and taught me everything I needed to know in life. I learned how to have fun, how to make friends, how to flirt properly, how to ask for favors without seeming to be asking for anything, how to get what I wanted out of life, how to use a laptop, how to play baseball, how to use a gun, how to clean a sword, how to apply makeup, how to taste wine properly, how to mix a drink (though she would kill me if I ever drunk), how to look cool when lighting a cigarette (again, she would kill me if I ever actually smoked so I never have), how to give a proper massage, how to oversoul, how to dress so I looked cool, but not too trashy, how to do household chores, how to pour a glass of milk in the Chinese fashion, how to eat an orange, and how to apologize in 33 different languages.

I owe a lot to her, and it was quite depressing to see her so sad. I reluctantly made my way to Karasumori, where my friends were waiting for me. Little did I know that my chance to make Ivy happy again waited to bump into me in the graveyard.

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Mikau: Okay people, has supposedly forbidden answering reviews. That makes me especially sad because that might mean that I won't be able to converse with you guys as much as I use to! SOB! I suppose that I'll just have to answer questions in a general way in my author notes. Well, personally I think this chapter is confusing. There is just too much info contributing to the back-story and so on and so forth, so I think it's a little hard to understand in some parts. Thank you so much everyone for the positive feedback about the first chapter!

Thanks To: MaiValentinefan, KaZuYa MiNeKuRa, Hemila-Rose, longbca, Fish and Chips, MiStraLL, Kiva Kyoyama, morgan000, keiiris, basseygirl, and Milly!

Response To Reviews: To answer some of the questions I got: I'm doing great. I broke up with Matt, so now we're just friends. My cousin Anna is fine, she's off doing something with some of her friends. I hope this chapter answers some other questions you people had about where Ivy is, why she left Hao, why Thorn hates Ivy so much, etc…I think that this will have maybe 20 chapters at max (watch me be wrong and end up with another 74 chapter fic…), so it should be shorter than Ivy. Don't worry if the fic seems depressing at first: it has its funny moments later on. I shall see you all later!

PLEASE REVIEW!


	3. Morning Makeovers

Mikau: Hello! I'm glad so many people like the fic so far. It makes all the hard work worth while. It might be a few days before I can post the next chapter; with all my homework, I'm finding it hard to make time for writing, and I'm going to be in the musical at my school, so practices are going to take a lot of my time.

**_Disclaimer:_** I don't own Shaman King.

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Morning Makeovers

It was about five o'clock, and no one else was awake. Luca, Opacho, Mari, Macchi, Kanna, Hane, and the others were all sound asleep for another hour or two. I had the entire mansion to myself…well almost. My guardian ghost, Isabelle floated feet away from where I sat on the couch reading my book.

"May I ask why ya insist on gettin' up at this God-forsaken hour in the mornin'?" The infamous bandita glared at the gun she was polishing. She was obviously bored, being up so early, and yet not doing anything.

I ignored her; she did this everyday.

"I 'spose yer waitin' fer yer sister t' get home?" I still didn't answer her, so she supplied her own response. "So ya are waitin' for Hoshi. And then after she gets home, you'll go for yer mornin' run. You'll get back t' the house around nine o'clock, do some chores, train, eat lunch, train some more, do some house work, eat dinner, train yet again, and then you'll help yer sister get ready for her hot date tonight. Am I right Thorn?" I only burrowed further into my Shakespearian literature, not wanting to admit to the monotony of my life.

Isabelle continued to rant at me in her mixed Spanish/Western accent. "You know what Thorn? You do practically the same thing every single day of your life. You need a little variety! We never do anything fun! What I need to do is take you into town!"

"No." I shut my copy of Julius Caesar firmly. "Dad doesn't let me go into town. It's dangerous for girls my age." I found myself spouting my father's exact words.

Isabelle rolled her burgundy eyes, and took her dark red hair down from its ponytail. "I have no idea what to do with you." The Western side of her accent slipped, and she spoke with a Spanish snap to her voice. "You know you want to go, I know you want to go, Hao knows you want to go, and yet you still refuse to admit it! Why do you listen to that father of yours! You know he's lying! Hoshi goes into town all the time, and she is only three minutes older! How can you refuse to go when all you _want _to do is go!"

"My father wouldn't lie like that!" I tried to defend him. "He knows what is best for me, and I plan to do what he says no matter how silly it seems. There are reasons why my dad doesn't want me to go into town, and it is not my place to question him." I glared furiously at my hand-me-down spirit.

"You know what I say is true. What Hao does is not in your best interests, but in his own. He babies you so much because you remind him of your mother, and he's unwilling to marry you off to anyone. You are sixteen, yet you are treated like a little girl. I suggest that you take charge of your own life, and get one!"

"No! Don't lie to me! I have a life! This is my life! Why are you so intent on changing it! I'm perfectly happy like I am!" I threw my book down and stood up to my full height.

"This is not the type of life that your mother wanted for you. She wanted you to think for yourself, and make your own decisions." Isabelle challenged, getting up in my face.

"Don't speak of **_her_**!" I spat back venomously. "I hate that bitch! Why should I care what that whore thinks of me!"

A ghostly slapped resounded in the empty halls of the mansion. I stared blankly back at Isabelle. "Don't. You. Ever. Speak about Ivy in that way."

I turned on my heel and ran up two flights of stairs to my bedroom. I was so angry at her. 'How dare she slap me! I'm her master! She has no right! I'm the Shaman King's daughter! No one can treat me that way!' I picked up my handgun and headed downstairs to the target range to vent some anger. Unfortunately, nothing seemed to be able to free me from my rage. Nothing except proving her wrong.

I stormed up back to the second floor, but instead of entering my room, I went into my sister's. Her room was a girly nightmare with hot pink walls, and posters of boy bands all over the ceiling. I tried to avoid going in her room when at all possible, but this was an exception. I needed a formfitting outfit, and that was something I could only get from my sister's closet. Of course, I could have gone into the Abandoned Room and borrowed some of Ivy's clothes, but I didn't want to look any more like her than I already did, so wearing her clothes was a bit sacrilegious for me.

I thumbed through my twin's immense wardrobe, and finally found something that served my purpose: a pair of red sweat pants, and a matching red jacket with a star on the chest-pocket area. Hoshi had stars all over her clothing because of her name; it was a sort of signature of hers. I put on the outfit with a white tank top undershirt. I held my breath, closed my eyes, and turned toward Hoshi's vanity mirror. I slowly opened my crystal-like orbs one by one, and almost fainted at the sight before me, reflected in the glass surface. If I put my hair up in a high ponytail, I looked exactly like my big sister. It was amazing! You could actually tell for sure that I was a woman! For the first time in my life, I looked like my twin.

"Wow…You, like, actually look good Thorn!" A high-pitched squeal from the doorway jerked me from my thoughts. I turned to see a girl about my height, with aqua blue eyes, and long crimson hair pulled into a high waterfall-like ponytail, secured with a star-shaped barrette. She wore a black leather mini skirt that looked more like a belt than a skirt. Funny that she even bothered to wear a belt with the skirt. Her belt was a simple chain with metal stars dangling from it. Her shirt, if you can call it a shirt, was bright orange. It looked more like a swimming suit top. All that was covering her top were two triangle pieces of cloth that were held together by skinny pieces of string, and that was hardly enough to cover her bulging chest. The strings formed a sort of halter top on her, surrounding her neck, and circling around her throat like it might strangle her at any moment. That string held the tops of the triangles. Another string was attached to the bottoms of the triangles, and that string circled around her back, securing the skimpy garment. The girl's Go-Go boots were the same bright orange color as her top. The boots only came up to mid-calf, but were elaborately decorated with—what else?—stars! My eyes wandered to her ears, and sure enough, in their rightful place, were star-shaped stud earrings.

My sister, Hoshi, smiled like a cat as she sauntered into the room and surveyed me.

"What do you want Hosh?" I slowly sucked in a breath, just waiting for her to snitch to dad that I had been in her clothes. She could be so childish sometimes.

"Here. It'll be, like, easier if you use this." She took the star clip from her own hair, and placed it in mine. Then I stood still as she took off the jacket and the tank top and replaced it with one of her favorite white tube tops. She put the jacket back on, but left it unzipped. My sister forced me to sit down on her vanity stool, and she proceeded to put make-up all over my face. When she was done, she drew a pentagram with eyeliner around my exposed belly button, and fixed it so that it would look like my belly button was pierced. Next, she stripped me of my old, worn tennis shoes, and placed an old pair of black leather, knee-high, boots on my feet. When she was finished, she stepped back and inspected her work.

I turned toward the mirror, and the girl looking back at me scared me to death. "AhK! What the hell did you do to me!"

"Oh my God, Thorn. You don't have to like overreact so much; I made you hott." Hoshi smiled knowingly and pulled my top down a bit more so that it showed more cleavage.

My hand instinctively flew up to hold on to my skimpy shirt, pulling it back up to cover me. "You made me like you!"

"That's, like…what I just said." She slapped away my hand and readjusted the top.

"No, you said you made me look like you!" I protested, fixing my shirt.

"It's the same thing." Two blue eyes rolled their annoyance at me. "Anyway, you like, look great. Actually you almost look as good as Mom! Almost. No one, not even I can look as hott and sexy as Ivy Kyôyama. She was a total, like…sex goddess!"

"I told you a thousand times, don't compare me to her!"

"What. Ever." Hoshi rolled her eyes at me again. "Now do you want to a have fun day on the town or not?"

My gaze dropped to the black leather boots that were now on my feet. I silently mumbled 'Yes.' under my breath.

"What was that?"

I glared up at her, knowing she had heard me clearly the first time. "Yes." I growled.

"Great!" A cheeky smile graced her hot pink lips. She pulled my top back down until it showed enough skin. "You should have no problem convincing Dad that you're me, now. You sure like look the part, but can you talk like me?"

"Um, Oh my God. Like, I, like, am, like, Hoshi, like, Asakura. Like."

I ignored the glare I got from my twin. "That'll, like, work for starters. But I really don't think I'll be able to teach you anything else. It'd be…like a waste of my time." Hoshi turned away from me, and headed into her walk-in closet.

"Thank you Hoshi." I allowed myself a quick grateful smile at my sister when she wasn't looking.

"Like don't mention it; it's my job to, like, help the less fortunate and stuff. And let's face it, who isn't less fortunate than I?" I rolled my eyes, and checked the image in the mirror one last time before I exited my conceited sister's room.

I had trouble walking down the stairs in the clunky black boots, but somehow I managed it without breaking my neck. Thankfully I got back to the parlor in one piece.

"You look like Hoshi!" Isabelle's mouth dropped when she got sight of me.

"Oh like shut up." I did my best to imitate my sister.

"Where did you get those?" Isa's gaze fell upon my new footwear.

"Oh, they're Hoshi's; she's letting me borrow her clothes." I explained.

Isa shook her head. "The clothes may be Hoshi's, but those boots have been around since before you two were born."

"Whose are they?" I pried, wanting to know just whose feet had been in the boots before mine.

"Nah…I'll tell you later. I knew the owner though. She was almost buried with those boots. I can't see why she loved them so much, but they were her little side-kicks." A mournful grin took the cowgirl's mouth.

I was about to ask something else when I heard a faint scratching at the door. It sounded like someone fumbling with keys, trying to stick the key in the lock, but missing and accidentally hitting the door. Finally the scratching stopped, and in stumbled my father. 'Stumbled' is a graceful term for what he actually did, but I can't come up with words to describe my father's swaying, tripping, and wobbling into the room, trying to steady himself by leaning on various objects.

"Dad!" I ran to him, and shifted his body so that he rested heavily on me, and I too stumbled under his weight. I helped him to the couch to lie down, and noticed the pungent odor of hard alcohol on his breath.

He muttered something that I couldn't make out. His words were slurred together so badly. "Dad?" He did respond at first, so I tried again, "Hao!"

"Whaddya want?" His words became more coherent.

"Dad? Where were you? Why were you drinking?" I tried to keep my voice steady, but it was hard for me to see my father like this.

"Hmm? Who ur you?" My heart broke with his words; he didn't even recognize his own daughter. "I-vy?"

"No!" Tears well up in my eyes. "It's me! You're daughter! Tho—er—Hoshi!"

It was no use. He was too drunk to hear me. He started to ramble in broken sentences and just plain nonsense sometimes. I really only caught phrases of what he said: "Ivy! Why? You didn't have to…leave me! On Christmas no less… I don't care! I never cared! I love you! Please come back to me; I can't stand living whenever you leave me! We could have made it work…I-vy!"

'That woman! That's why he was drinking! He was still upset about that witch leaving him. And today is her birthday…that's why…That bitch…she doesn't deserve him.'

"You're drunk." I finally admitted it out loud, letting all my worst fears out. My mother was gone, and my father was become more and more of an alcoholic by the day. He usually didn't drink. It was a rare thing that my father came home wasted; usually that was Hoshi's job. Dad only got drunk when he was depressed, consequently, the drinking made him even more depressed, unlike Hoshi, who always became slaphappy when she was drunk.

"No I'm not." Hao sat up and looked me in the eye. He looked completely sober. "I get really depressed when I'm drunk. Do I look depressed to you?" He flashed me a million dollar smile. "No, I'm only semi-intoxicated." He joked.

"D-dad!" I buried my face in his chest, slightly smudging the line-liner with my tears. "Please don't drink anymore!"

I could sense him raising an eyebrow at me, "Wow…was I that drunk? What did I say?" His words were still a little slurred, but he was sober for the most part.

I shook my head, not wanting to talk about him not recognizing his own daughter, or his mistaking me for **_her_**.

"Was it that bad?" Hao took my face in his hands and looked into my eyes. "Look, whatever I said: I'm so sorry. I didn't mean a word of it."

"But you did." I insisted, and it was true. He had thought I was Ivy, and really that's how he had always thought of me: Ivy's little clone. Isabelle was right: everything he did, all the rules he made for me weren't to keep me safe, they were to keep me from growing up and leaving.

"Look, Thorn—"

"I'm Hoshi!" I insisted.

"Hoshi?" He blinked several times and squinted at me. "I could have sworn…Wow. I am the worst father ever. Can't even tell his own children apart." My father reached into his side pocket and pulled out a bottle of vodka. I snatched it before he could take a drink.

"DAD! Stop it! You're a great father! You just need to stop drinking!" I whined.

"All right." He agreed.

"What?" I did a double take.

"I said 'all right.' I'm going to quit drinking." He stood up straight, wobbling only a little. He picked up the vodka bottle, and threw it in the trash.

"Seriously Dad." I rolled my eyes at his foolish joking.

"I am serious. I'm going to stop, if it means that much to you. I'll go cold turkey. No more drinking from here on out." His handsome smile assured me that he was seriously going to do what he said.

"Thank you so much!" I jumped into his arms, knocking him over back on to the couch.

"Sure thing. Just don't be too mad at me when you come home tonight from your little outing and find me passed out, drunk on the couch." He muttered.

"How did you know I was going out?" I got off of him and took a seat next to him on the couch.

"Your clothes. They are clothes that you wear to go into town to pick up boys." He observed.

"Oh! Well, I am going into town, but I'm not picking up any boys today." I smiled sheepishly; trying to pass as Hoshi was hard, and I was afraid that I was doing a lousy job of it so far.

"All right then…have fun, and don't get involved with any boys. They're all hormonal perverts." Hao stood up and walked me to the door, hugging me and saying, "Please be careful."

"I will." I vowed.

"Hey, where did you get those boots?" His eyes were slightly misty when he looked at them.

"These? Oh, Hoshi gave them to me." I didn't realize my slip. **_I_** was supposed to be 'Hoshi'.

"Hmm…be careful not to get them scuffed up. Their owner will want them returned 'good as new' when she comes back." Sadly my father bid me on my way, making me promise to be back by noon.

'Just be careful Thorn…I can't always be there to protect you.'

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Mikau: Poor Hao…he always seems to get drunk in my fics…but he sure sobered up quickly…hmm. Oh well, so is life.

Thank you to reviewers: Hemila-Rose, evelyn619, ChibiAzn3, morgan000, animeren, MaiValentinefan, Danny, keiiris, Kiva Kyoyama, and Knux33.

To MaiValentinefan: I'd love to help you on your story! Feel free to email me any time.

PLEASE REVIEW!


	4. Meeting By Chance

Mikau: Hello! I'm really missing being able to respond to reviews. I miss talking freely to you all! Sigh…Oh well. Right now in school, I'm in a musical. I don't know how often I'll be updating.

**_Disclaimer:_** I don't own Shaman King.

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Meeting By Chance

I set off for town with Isabelle trailing not too far behind me. She had promised to show me all of her favorite hangouts, and all the best spots to visit. I was determined to have fun if it killed me. It was still really early—only 6:15, so I was surprised to find anything open. Isabelle pointed out some of her favorite little sushi stands giving out free samples to extremely early customers. She took me around to the little shops and outdoor markets, not yet open. I was practically the only human out on the streets that early, but I had a great time, regardless.

At about 6:36, Isabelle led me to the local graveyard: The Karasumori graveyard. I hopped the fence, ignoring the KEEP OUT signs, and wandered around the graveyard freely. Then I heard the voices. Not ghosts' voices, but humans. I wasn't the only one still alive in that graveyard.

I peeked out from behind the little building standing on top of the hill, and looked across the bridge at a group of three teenagers, two boys and a girl, standing under the huge tree in the center of the graveyard.

The one I noticed first was clearly not a Shaman. He was waaaaay too short. He was about 80 cm tall, short and stocky, and didn't look ghost compatible. He had sandy blonde hair down to around chin length, bright green eyes, and glasses. 'Shorty' wore blue jeans that looked as if they would be shorts on anyone else, plain white tennis shoes that I'm sure were really baby-booties, and a shrunken blue T-shirt that read in bright red letters: "A Life? COOL! Where Can I Download One!" Strapped on his back was what looked like a black laptop carrying case.

Next, my attention zeroed in on the girl. Her bright blue hair was messily done up in spiky pigtails with long, shoulder length bangs, and she had gray eyes like I had never seen before. She wore a navy blue headband with Ainu designs in silver, white and blue tennis shoes, long light blue stockings up to her mid-thighs, and a black mini skirt with blue trim also decorated with block-like Ainu patterns. Her T-shirt was plain white with the words in blue: "My girlfriend wouldn't like you hitting on me." Her clothes were really tight, but they looked good on her hourglass frame.

The oldest looking of the three was also the most attractive: he stood about a head above the 5 foot 4 girl, not including the spike of his hair. He had dark violet hair with some bangs hanging down in his ice blue eyes. His hair was speckled with bright blue, and it came to a point, making him seem a good six inches taller. He wore tight black pants, and a black jacket with no shirt. Black combat boots adorned his feet, and a chocker with a cross made out of nails on it, hung around his neck.

The three seemed to be debating about something. I got as close as I could without being noticed, and listened in.

"He's late." The purple-haired man growled. "Again. How did I know he was going to be late?"

"Chill dude!" The blue-haired girl slapped her friend on the shoulder. "I'm sure Hana will be here any minute! Right Makoto?" The bubbly teen glanced downwards at the tiny blonde.

"Hmm?" The short one, Makoto, looked up from the book he had just been reading. "I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention. What did you say Ivory?"

"Dude, that's not cool. Pay attention next time when I'm talking. I asked if I was right that Hana would be here any time now." The girl, Ivory glanced downward again at her companion.

"Oh, yes, sure!" Makoto agreed with Ivory. "Don't you think so Akira? He couldn't be _that_ much longer; he's already fifteen minutes late."

'Akira', the violet-haired one sniffed indignantly. "The buffoon probably isn't coming at all."

"Who's not coming?" A friendly voice called, mere feet from where I was standing. Thankfully I was well enough hidden, and wasn't seen by any of the people.

"Oh, look who showed up." Akira glared at the new comer.

"Hey buddy!" The new arrival smiled goofily back.

"Hello Hana-kun." Makoto put away his book and smiled back at his friend.

"HANA-KOI!" Ivory ran across the bridge to greet this 'Hana' person, and when she got in range, she pounced upon him, encircling her arms around his neck, and her legs around his waist.

"Uh…hey Ivory." Hana gently pried the girl off of him. "Makoto. Akira." Hana crossed the bridge and greeted his friends individually. The new boy had his back to me the whole time, so I didn't get a chance to look him over and study his features.

"It's not fair. Why does Hana get all the girls?" Makoto sighed in the general direction of Akira. "Even the lesbians…"

"I have no idea why that foolish bi-sexual cousin of mine is attracted to him. I personally don't see it. We Taos are heterosexual, and haven't got an eye for such things. Insanity must run on my mother's side of the family."

Makoto puzzled this for a moment before stating, "Your mother? But Pilika is perfectly sane."

The purple-haired shaman rolled his icy eyes. "I meant my mother's brother: that Horo Horo idiot."

Ivory leaped at Akira in a maddening rage. "Don't you insult my father! He's a great man, and we Ainu are accomplishing more with our Coltsfoot fields than you Chinese ever could!"

"I'm half Ainu too, you dolt!" The spike of Akira's hair grew another three inches. "So I guess the problem is with _your_ mother!"

"My mother is perfectly sane!" Ivory got ready to tear out her cousin's vocal cords.

"Actually, Tamao _is_ a little off." Hana sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck. "I know from experience."

Ivory whirled around and smacked Hana right across the face. This little squabble was getting to be interesting.

"Hey! Why'd you slap me?" Hana whined, his eyes shining with the beginnings of tears.

"Why do any of the women in your life slap you, Hana-kun?" Makoto sighed lightly, shaking his head. His sandy hair rustling in the wind the shaking motion created.

"You're right! All the women in my life slap me! Let's see, there's my mother," Hana started to count out on his fingers as Akira and Ivory started a Shaman Fight in the background. "Tamao, my mother, sometimes Ivory, my mother, I think Ivy hit me once, and…Oh yeah, did I say my mother already?"

By that time Ivory and Akira had finished with their little scuffle, and were ready to start a new fight. "Hey, shrimpy, I've always wondered, why are you such a midget?" Akira teased, grinning evilly.

Makoto turned his nose up at Akira. "We Oyamadas have always been on the short side, so don't you dare try to pick a fight with me. I'm not a Shaman, so I can't have a Shaman battle with you."

"All right, guys. Enough fighting already." Hana, the seeming leader of the group tried to keep the peace.

"Fine. I'll stop fighting if Akira stops making fun of bisexuals and my family." Ivory gazed at Hana, clearly infatuated with him.

"Only if she stops getting on my case about the Chinese people." The Chinese shaman spat back.

Hana sighed, "The only problem with having ethnically diverse friends is when they all start acting racist…That, or when China vs. Japan in the International Soccer Championship…"

"Nicely put Hana-kun." Makoto smiled up at the leader. "But didn't we all come here for something?"

"Oh…yeah!" Hana started to dig around in his various pockets. "I swear it was in here when I left the house…but now it's gone!"

"Which reminds me, why were you so late? You didn't get sweet talked into doing an errand for your aunt again did you?" Akira spit annoyingly.

"Actually, I was helping my aunt clean the kitchen, and kind of lost track of time…" I didn't actually see Hana smile since he still had his back to me, but I could here the sheepish smile in his voice. He reminded me a lot of my uncle Yoh.

"Dude, your aunt is soooo hott!" Ivory chipped in to the conversation.

"Figures." Akira went on, ignoring Ivory's statement. "You always do that! You always have to help other people even if it's out of your way! My father says it runs in your family and that your father was the same way."

"But isn't it a good thing to help others?" Hana tilted his head to the side slightly and questioned innocently.

"Yes, but the way you do it so frequently…Hana, you must understand that you can't help every stray dog in the world." Akira's tone lightened as he tried to explain to his slightly younger friend.

"I've never brought home a stray dog." Hana insisted, taking Akira literally.

Makoto took a chance at helping his thick friend understand. "What Akira means is by 'stray dogs' he's referring to all the people off the street that you help. You try to help every single person you see."

"I don't see anything wrong with that." Hana still wasn't really getting it. I had to admire him for his helpfulness to strangers though. Helping people you didn't even know had to be a hard job.

"Well, anyways, I probably dropped it when I hopped the gate. I'll go find it and will be back in about ten minutes at most. Let's go Amidamaru." Hana motioned to his samurai spirit, walked back across the bridge, and down to the cemetery gate to look for the item he had dropped.

"Oh my God! It's Amidamaru!" Isabelle exclaimed.

The three remaining teenagers heard her exclamation and started to walk over to my hiding place to investigate. I quickly sealed Isa inside her memorial tablet, sat on the ground, leaning up against the small building I was hiding behind, and pretended to be asleep. Maybe they would just leave me alone?

"It's a girl." Makoto's voice hovered inches from my right ear.

"I can tell." Akira slipped off my jacket. "She looks unconscious; she probably passed out from the humidity of the air or something, and needs to get rid of some of those hot looking clothes so that she can cool down and regain consciousness."

"PHFFT! We all know that you're just using that as an excuse to undress her, coz! There's no way that she could be overheated in those paper thin clothes." Ivory tilted my head from side to side, observing me. "Though I don't blame you; she's almost as hott as Ivy. Let's do her! Me first, then Akira, then Makoto, and then if she hasn't woken up by the time Hana gets back, he can have a turn."

"Hana would never do something like that." Makoto stood up for his friend.

"Yeah, he doesn't have to. All he would have to do is just wait until she woke up and then talk her into sleeping with him." I could sense Akira rolling his eyes. "Ivory may do as she wishes with her. I for one don't want to watch. We Taos don't work that way, and I don't want her after Ivory is done."

"Suit yourself. More for me!" The smile in Ivory's voice was enough to make me sick. I could feel her straddle my outstretched legs, and I didn't dare wait another minute to oversoul Isabelle and draw my gun.

"Ivory don't!" Makoto protested.

My left hand cocked my trusty gun, 'Jack', as I held it to Ivory's head. "If you do, I'll kill you." I slowly slid my eyes open, letting them fill with hate.

"Leave my cousin alone, you!" Akira whipped out what looked like nunchakus, only instead of two, there were three held together by linking chains. The gun flew out of my hand, and went off as it hit the ground. The rubber bullet stung me in my left calf. I struggled to stand, and reached out for my gun, but Akira flicked it out of reach with his weapon.

"Bastard!" I glared, heavily leaning on the back wall of the building for support while clutching my leg.

"You little…" I hardly saw him move as I felt something jab me in the stomach. I sunk again to my knees, and he came in for a second attack, this time targeting my head. I felt woozy, like I might pass out at any second. My vision faded in and out, then everything went out of focus. It started to rain. Hard. I lie on the ground in a daze, closing my eyes, and let the rain's coolness swallow me.

I faintly heard frantic footsteps approaching, and someone called, "GUYS! IS EVERYTHING ALL RIGHT! I HEARD A GUNSHOT!"

"Everything is…fine Hana. Everything is…fine." Akira sounded just as dazed as I felt.

"Oh. My. GOD!" Hana rushed to my side, and held me in his arms, shielding me from the rain.

"You sound like your aunt." Ivory meekly joked, not sounding bubbly or peppy anymore.

"What did you guys do!" Hana sounded angrier than anything, but there was a hint of fear evident as he spoke.

No one made a noise. "Help me carry her. We're taking her home with me. Faust will know what to do." No one moved to help Hana; they were too scared.

"Help me!" He glared up at his friends.

"I-I'm fine." My eyes flickered open. I got my first glimpse of Hana.

He was a good two inches taller than me, but he didn't look that old. Maybe only a year older than I was, so about seventeen. He had beautiful black eyes that looked like shiny slabs of freshly cut marble. His dirty brownish blonde hair was unruly, falling in wisps all over the place, but most of it resting on his shoulders. His nose was small, but perfect, his eyes were also just the right size. I spent a little extra time gazing at his mouth, slightly open in shock. He wore black sweat pants with a single orange stripe running up the side of them, and a black tank top with a picture of a cartoonish-looking sun on it.

I swear my heart stopped beating.

"Are you sure?" He blushed slightly down at me.

I snapped back to my senses and fought to stand. Eventually I made it to my feet, and bolted, ignoring the pain I felt consuming my body. I ignored the rain as I jumped the graveyard fence, and almost slipped on the wet pavement.

"Hana! What are you doing!" Akira called after Hana as the younger of the two ran after me.

"I'm not leaving her like this: she could die!" Hana called over his shoulder before disappearing over the cemetery gate.

"You see, this is what I'm talking about. SHE'S A STRAY DOG, HANA! STRAY DOG!" Akira called over the sound of the rain, but Hana was long gone.

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Mikau: I have no idea…I really like this chapter…It was fun to write. I hope you guys like it. I'm not exactly sure of Hana's character in the manga, so I'm, just making him a little like his father, and a little like his mother. Actually he's turning into more Yoh than anything else…Oh well; I'm still pretty happy with my interpretation of him.

Thanks to: Hemila-Rose, LisaTheHedgehog, Andrea Nefisto, Strawberry, MaiValentinefan, KaZuYa MiNeKuRa, morgan000, animeren, cutie1789, DarkPisces33, Kiva Kyoyama, hmmmm…., ChibiAzn3, Danny, yo wuz up, glitter galz, HAO-Addictive, and MiStraLL.

To Strawberry: If you have a windows media player, (if you don't have one you can download one for free somewhere) then you can go to this site: http // www dot getitfido dot com / pafiledb dot php? action category &id 58 and download SK episodes for free.

PLEASE REVIEW! I just wanted everyone to know that I do read all my reviews, and appreciate them greatly.


	5. Tears of an Allure

Mikau: I am so tired. I can't even think of what to say. I have so much homework, it's not even funny.

**_Disclaimer:_** I don't own Shaman King.

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Tears of an Allure

I ignored the rain and kept running after the mysterious girl. 'God, Ivy. You picked a great time to start crying.' I mentally complained, but immediately took it back. 'Sorry…I know it's not your fault…I shouldn't have said that…'

I snapped back to reality as I almost tripped over a girl lying in the middle of the road, facedown. I carefully flipped her over, and inspected her. "Yep. You're my girl all right. Unless you have a twin that got beat up by my friends as well." I scooped her up and lugged her into the nearest abandoned building.

It was leaky and cold, but it was the only place I knew to bring her to get her temporarily out of the rain. I knew the building was empty, since my friends and I had snuck into the old one-room shack tons of times as kids to tell ghost stories.

I lay the girl on the sofa and inspected her injuries. The wound on her calf wasn't too bad, but it would leave a scar. She didn't look like she was internally bleeding, and that was always good. Her stomach was slightly bruised, but that was about the extent of the damage. The only thing I was really worried about was the lump on her head. I gingerly ran my fingers across it, and she winced.

"Don't touch me." She muttered.

"Sorry." I softly mumbled back. "Are you feeling okay?"

"I told you: I'm fine." She tried to sit up, but I pushed her back down.

"You need to rest. Just don't fall asleep. You might have a concussion or something…I really don't know what a concussion is, but I know that you might get one if you sleep after getting a nasty bump on the head." I sent a friendly smile her way.

"Wow…that really makes me feel better. My caretaker doesn't know a thing about medicine." She fumed. "Why did you follow me?" She quickly changed the subject.

"You were hurt…You still are hurt." I brushed some of her bangs away so that I could see her dark eyes, very similar to my own. "What's your name?" I couldn't help but asking.

"I don't like boys." She glared up at me.

"Oh!" I had no idea what to say next. What do you say when someone gives you that sort of information? "Well then…uh…I have this friend Ivory, and she…well she likes girls." I tried to make pleasant conversation. Everything had just gotten so awkward.

"I don't like girls either, you sicko." She bit. I could tell that she didn't like her present situation one bit.

"Well, we can be friends then." I tried my smile again. "What's your name?"

"Thorn."

"I'm Hana. I'm seventeen and three quarters. I'm a shaman, and my guardian ghost's name is Amidamaru. I oversoul him into my sword, and for more power, again into this antiquity." I kept talking, telling her all about myself. How I was raised by my aunt until my parents came home to me when I was six, and all sorts of other things. I just didn't tell her any names.

"What about you?" I smiled again at the soulless girl lying on the sofa. It was still raining, and she looked most displeased to be there with me.

"I…I should have listened to my father and staid home. This was a bad idea, and I really regret it. I want to go home. I was wrong, and he was right." Small streams of tears escaped her cold eyes. Thorn sat up, took the star-shaped clip out of her hair, and wiped most of her make up off onto her jacket. "I shouldn't try to be things I'm not, and one of the things I'm not is pretty, so all this make up and stuff has to go."

All I could do was stare at her with her hair down, and her make up off. She looked completely different. I couldn't help but insist, "Oh my God you're right…Do me a favor, and never put make up on again. You're not pretty; you're gorgeous!"

"R-really!" It seemed as if a boy had never told her that she was pretty before.

"Definitely." I reassured her. She looked a lot like Ivy. 'Wait…"Thorn" is the name of Ivy's daughter! Could this girl be my cousin?' "Uhhh…You said your name is Thorn, right?"

"Yes."

"Umm…I was just wondering…What's your mother's name?" I held my breath and prayed that the hottie wasn't related to me.

Thorn suddenly became cold to me, and her eyes froze over again. "I don't have a mother."

"Oh…sorry." I decided that talking about mothers was not a safe topic to discuss with the girl. "So…how old are you?"

"I'm sixteen, I'll be seventeen on Christmas, but I really don't celebrate my birthday." She shifted uneasily in her seat. It was as if she didn't feel comfortable talking to me.

"Why don't you? Birthdays are sort of a big deal…and since yours is on Christmas and all—"

"—We just don't okay!" She snapped.

"I'm sorry." I scooted away from her, cowering in fear. "What about the rest of your family? Or are you an orphan?"

"I have a father and a twin sister." That was all I can get her to say before she got suspicious of me. "Why are you talking to me anyway? Why did you follow me?"

"I keep talking to you so that you don't fall asleep and get a concussion. I followed you because I want to help you. It's in my nature." I smiled warmly at her.

She turned away from me so that I didn't see her blush. "Thank you. ACHOO!"

"You all right?" I felt of her forehead, and as soon as I made contact with her skin, I pulled back. "You're burning up! How do you feel? Are you all right? How many fingers am I holding up?" I started fussing over her, checking for anything else wrong.

"I told you, I'm fine." She slapped away my hands. "God. You're just like my dad. ACHOO!"

"I'm taking you home with me." I told her firmly.

"No. I can walk home on my own as soon as the rain stops. I'll be fine. I can take care of myself." She stood and started to walk towards the door, only wobbling slightly. The authoritative tone in her voice made me believe that she really would make it home all right. That was until she passed out.

"Thorn!" I just barely made it in time to catch her. "Thorn! Thorn!" Her whole body felt like volcanic ash. It was hard for me to keep a hold on her without feeling the uncomfortable scorching sensation of her skin on mine. I made up my mind right then that I had to get her home. I had no idea what I was doing, and I had no way of assessing how badly she was hurt.

I moved her body around, trying to find the easiest way to carry her while still being able to run. She was surprisingly light; she definitely weighed less than I did, and I really didn't weigh all that much. I picked Thorn up bridal style and ran out into the rain.

Fifteen or so minutes later, I had made it to the Onsen. I didn't even stop to catch my breath before I started banging on the door since it was locked, and I had forgotten my key. "MOM! IVY! TAMAO! ANYBODY! OPEN UP! IT'S ME, HANA!"

Seconds later the door opened and my mother stood glaring at me. "Hana! Where have you been! It's raining, and—" Anna's frown dropped when she saw the body in my arms.

"Mom, she's hurt and needs a doctor…" I stepped inside, and shifted Thorn's body slightly.

"Faust isn't here…He won't be home until tomorrow late." A blank look came upon my mother's face.

"She needs a doctor now!" My heart sunk to learn that we wouldn't be able to get medical attention for the poor thing.

"I can tell…What is her name?"

"She's Thorn. Hey, uh…Mom? Don't you think she looks a lot like Ivy?" I carefully asked, trying not to arise too much suspicion.

"She does…Ivy's younger twin's name is Thorn." Anna took the body from me and carried her to a spare room, gently setting the girl down on the bed. "And she's wearing Ivy's boots. Hana go get your aunt; she's the closest thing we have to a doctor. She's down in the lab."

I gave a quick nod and ran out the door. A second or so later, a thought occurred to me, and I stuck my head back into the room. "Are you saying she might be my cousin?"

The only response I got was, "Perhaps. Now go!"

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Thank You To: ChibiAzn3, evelyn619, Kiva Kyoyama, Hemila-Rose, morgan000, KaZuYa MiNeKuRa, glitter galz, DarkPisces33, and Danny!

PLEASE REVIEW!


	6. Happy Birthday

Mikau: Hello! Today is my brother's birthday. Let's all sing 'Happy Birthday' to Jordan! Lol…Okay, I really like the first half of the chapter. I've really missed writing in Ivy's POV, so I really loved this chapter. Though, I tend to be more poetic in my descriptions and stuff when I write in Thorn's POV. This chapter also features a guest appearance by our favorite Devil: Lucifer! Yes, I couldn't help it.

**_Disclaimer:_** I don't own Shaman King.

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Happy Birthday

"Happy Birthday to me…" I sang gloomily, pouring a gray liquid into a test tube. I didn't really pay much attention to what it was I was mixing. It might have been silicon. "Happy Birthday to me…" Next I picked up a greenish vile labeled 'Krypton'. "Happy Birthday dear Ivy…" In went a tiny amount of what could have been Argon. "Happy Birthday to you." A single drop of Phosphorous somehow got into the mixture and it caused a small explosion.

Glass went flying everywhere, and some sort of gas wafted into the air, making me cough; luckily I had on protective goggles so I didn't get glass particles in my eyes. Unfortunately the rest of my body wasn't covered very well in my green capris and black tank top. I pulled off the glasses, letting my hair drop into my face, and started picking the pieces of glass out of my skin. I didn't feel any of it, and I didn't start bleeding.

I glared down at the wretched body I was trapped in. It wasn't like a real body at all. I didn't feel pain, my heart didn't beat, and no blood ran through my veins. It was worse than being dead. To live in a corpse was beyond Hell.

Speaking of Hell, "I can help you." A seductive voice from behind me cooed.

"Leave me alone. How many times must I say 'no' before you get it?"

"Ivy-koi, it makes me happy just to hear your voice; I'd be content to stay here and listen to you tell me 'no' for the rest of all eternity." A hand snaked its way around my waist, and slowly pulled me backwards until I was pressed up against the owner's body.

"Don't call me that Lucifer!" I grabbed his arm and threw him over my shoulder into a lab counter.

He crashed head first into the counter, and all of the glass vials and instruments on top of the counter. "God, Ivy you're mean." The young man slowly brushed off all the glass shards.

I took a minute to gaze longingly at him. Well, in truth I _was_ looking at him, but I was really thinking about the person he was impersonating. At the moment, Lucifer looked exactly like Hao. Long brown hair down to his waist, dark brown eyes gleaming with some mischief or another, and that endearing little smirk in place, playfully positioned on his lips. The Devil was even dressed like my former husband: star disc earrings, no shirt, floofy star adorn pants with belts hanging off of them, even fingertip-less gloves with stars on the backs. The only thing he lacked was the poncho.

"I hate you." I spat at him as he managed to get to his feet.

"It's because you love me." He smiled slyly.

"It's because I love _him._" I corrected.

Lucifer's smile lessened considerably. "I could be him. I look like him, I dress like him, I love you like he loved you, I could even sound like him if that would please you," The demon's voice deepened to match Hao's pitch. "but you still refuse me."

"I don't want you. I want the real Hao." I turned on my heel, and started reassembling the crumbling laboratory.

"Come on Ivy, you know I can help. I can get you your old body back. I can fix you up good as new. I can give you your life back and give you your husband back. I can turn back the clock sixteen years. Say yes, and I'll make it so that you never left Hao in the first place."

"Oh, sure," I started sarcastically. "All I have to do is sell my soul to the devil!"

"Only for the rest of eternity." He followed me around the lab right on my heels, trying to persuade me.

"No."

"Oh come on Ivy! You know you want to. Sleep with me!"

"No!" I threw a vial of potassium at him.

He just barely dodged in time. "Please sleep with me?" He tried again.

"N-O. NO! Besides if I did sell my soul to you, Hao wouldn't want me when you were finished." I tried to reason with him, but there was no doing.

"He doesn't want you now either, so what's the difference?" Lucifer appeared in front of me in a little puff of red smoke sitting on top of a counter.

"Don't say that." I could feel the tears start to fall, and the rain outside picked up.

"It's true."

"How is his new wife anyway?" I let the tears flow freely, not caring that Lucifer saw everything.

"Pregnant."

"Again? Isn't that like the fourth time now?" I unconsciously wiped the same spot on a near-by counter top repetitively with a hand towel.

"Fifth." Lucifer corrected me evilly. "Obviously he's doing fine with his new wife. The fact that they love each other madly is a bit self-evident by looking at her constantly expanding and deflating waistline."

"What's her name again?" I asked off-handedly, pretending not to care too much.

"Anlita." A slow smile crept onto his face. He new he was wearing me down slowly.

"I still can't believe he only waited six years before remarrying." I sighed. "Maybe he wasn't as in love with me as I thought."

"Actually, he only waited five years before getting married to Anlita. The good news is that Hoshi and Thorn just _love_ their new mom." I winced slightly at his words. I had pretty much given up all hope when Lucifer had told me about Hao's second marriage only a few years after my departure. "Well, Ivy, my offer still stands as always until you decide to take it, but I have to go at the moment because I think your nephew needs to have a talk with you. He should be coming down the stairs in a few seconds. Oh, and by the way, I think that that explosion did something to your hair and eye color." In a flash he was gone just as quickly as he had come, and I was reminded of how much I hated how similar his exiting techniques were to Hao's.

"AUNTIE IVY!" Sure enough, my nephew Hana came leaping down the stairs faster than his feet could carry him. He stopped only when he saw the blown-up state that the lab was in. "Ivy?" He raised an eyebrow at me as if he was unsure of my identity. "Is that you Ivy?"

"Yes, of course it's me!" I frowned slightly. "Are you feeling okay, Hana?"

"I'm the one who should be asking _you_ that. What did you do to your hair! And your eyes! Though it does look amazingly hott on you…" Hana stopped in mid babble to stare at me.

I picked up a near-by hand mirror and surveyed the damage that the mini explosion of chemicals had caused. I nearly dropped the mirror when I saw my new appearance. "Oh. My. GOD!" My hair was waist-length, and metallic silvery in color instead of my usual semi-highlighted brown color. My eyes too had changed pigment, and now in place of my raven's-wing colored pools, my eyes looked like murky sea water: a weird mix of some blue-green color. It was different…way different, but it looked good on me, however much I preferred my original appearance.

"Wow…this will take some getting use to. We'll have to make a new corpse for me as soon as Faust gets home."

"Ah, speaking of Faust," Hana started. "He's not here, and there's this girl—"

"Ohhhh….how cute! Have you told your mother yet, or am I the first one you came to for advice?" I abandoned my quest to clean the lab in favor of conversing with my sister's son.

"I told Mom already; she said to get you." He filled me in.

"Well, I've already given you all the advice on girls that I know of…just do what I told you, and she should be yours in no time." I smiled warmly as a faint blush arose on Hana's cheeks.

"No, Ivy. She's gorgeous and everything, but I don't want to date her; she's hurt. There's a girl upstairs, and Faust isn't here to treat her. Anna told me to come and get you because of your medical experience."

"Ohhhhhh…sorry…I thought you meant that 'there was a girl' as in 'in your life' or something. What's wrong?" My tone suddenly became uninterested. I really didn't feel well enough to play doctor even if I had been hurt enough times to know a little something about medicine. I turned my back to him and went back to cleaning.

"I-vy! You should show more interest than that! The poor girl could be dying for all I know!" Hana roughly spun me around and glared down at me. The boy stood a good few inches above me. He was about even height-wise with Yoh.

"That's not my problem. Call a real doctor." I was in no mood to do anything for this girl. I was too spacey, and would probably just make it worse.

"Are you completely heartless, Ivy?"

I could feel the heat rising off of my skin, and the flames forming in my eyes. I could hardly control my rage as I punched him right in the stomach. Not hard, but enough to sting for a while. "No, I do have a heart, but it just doesn't work right. It doesn't pump blood because I have no blood for it to pump. My heart doesn't beat, I don't bleed, I'm hardly even human anymore! All I can do is cry, and today is the first time I've cried in a long, long time! I'm a monster! An inactive heart does me no good! All I want to do is go home to my husband and children, but I can't even do that! I hate this body! I hate living like this! I just want to die and get it over with!"

"IVY!" The pleading look in my nephew's eyes snapped me back away from my insanity.

"I'm sorry." I turned back around and buried my face in a Chemistry book. "Two Hydrogen…and one Oxygen." I picked up the corresponding vials and started to mix the ingredients.

"Her name is Thorn. She has dark brown eyes like yours, and her hair is your color brown with a little crimsonish coloring from Hao." Hana placed a reassuring hand on my shoulder.

"What?" My hand slipped and I accidentally added too much Oxygen. I ignored the failed experiment, and looked directly into Hana's eyes.

"The girl upstairs…The one that I want you to treat. Her name is Thorn. Mom said that she's wearing your old boots too…I thought that maybe you'd like to meet her."

"Which room?"

"First door on the left when exiting the kitchen." He barely had the words out of his mouth before I had washed the chemicals off of my hands, grabbed my first aid kit, and was half way up the basement stairs.

I burst in the room to find my older twin hovering over the bedside, trying her best to be helpful.

"Anna?" I hesitated in the doorway, not sure if I should go completely in the room or not. Hana quickly caught up to me, and stood behind me in the doorway.

"Ivy! What happened to you! You look nothing like 'Ivy' anymore!" My sister stared at my new silver hair and blue-green eyes, unable to blink.

"Yeah, well that's what happens when you mix chemicals at random. What about this girl? Is she…?" I took a ginger step into the room. Hana pushed past and gazed anxiously down at the body in the bed.

"See for yourself. She's got your eyes and features. I think she might be…anyway, she's a little beat up, and her fever is ridiculously high. She needs your help whether she turns out to be your daughter or not." Anna took me by the wrist and pulled me into the room.

I took one look at the girl and I knew that she was my daughter. There was no way that she couldn't be. She looked just like me…sort of…there was a lot of Hao in her too. The moment I first set sight on her, I felt a strange pang in my chest. It was something I hadn't felt in a long, long time…a heart beat. Just one, but I was certain of what it was. My fake heart had beat. Then it stopped. Thinking I had just imagined it, I abandoned my thoughts about the heartbeat, and immediately set to work treating the various bumps, bruises, and fever.

"Well?" Hana peered over my shoulder, glancing down at Thorn.

"She'll be fine." I assured him.

"That's not what I meant, and you know it. Is she, or is she not your daughter?"

"I haven't the foggiest." I lied, but the smirk on my face reveled my true thoughts.

"She is, isn't she?" Hana's smile brightened. He had always wanted to meet my children, and now he was getting his chance. "Don't lie to me Ivy, I can read you like a book!"

"Fine." I conceded. "I'll admit, she does look like me, she is wearing my boots, and her name is Thorn, so this leads me to the fact that she is my daughter."

"I knew it! I can't wait till she wakes up, and we can introduce the two of you!"

"No." I shook my head. "Don't tell her. Call me Valerie…I don't want her to know how I'm related to her. I'll pretend to be Anna's cousin; she never has to know." A slow smile rose to my lips. "Is that okay with you, Anna?"

"Whatever you think is best. I just hope you know what the hell you're doing 'Valerie'." My sister looked away from me and to her own son.

"Thank you."

"Why!" Hana exclaimed, flinging rainwater onto his mother. I smiled when the drops that flew at me didn't dare touch my skin. It was amusing to watch the little droplets cower in fear of their master.

A knowing smile overtook my face. "You spoke with her: she probably hates me."

"She didn't speak of her mother. She seemed really angry when she said she didn't have one." Hana puzzled.

"Exactly. See, she's already disowned me, and she hasn't even met me yet. She has a bias opinion of 'Ivy', so give me awhile to win her over as 'Valerie'. Then we'll see how she handles the news that I'm her mother. Is that okay with you Hana?"

My nephew thought about it for a moment before nodding his consent.

"Good. Now go get changed out of those wet clothes. Once you're done changing, bring me one of my red tank tops, and a pair of my black capris. Her clothes are soaked, and she looks about my size. After you're done with that, tell everyone else about calling me 'Valerie'. No slip ups, okay?"

"Right."

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Mikau: Okay, someone asked me if I thought that Thorn would be as long as Ivy. I'd have to say probably not. I'm only expecting 20-25 chapters tops on this story. Thank you all!

Thanks to: Knux33, MaiValentinefan, LisaTheHedgehog, Andrea Nefisto, ChibiAzn3, glitter galz, HAO-Addictive, Hemila-Rose, morgan000, your-wOrst-nightmARee, DarkPisces33, WiNdScArBaBe, Danny, and Kiva Kyoyama.

To MaiValentinefan: Even I don't know who Manta married…she's not a Shaman though, and she married him for his money. About your name problem: First off, I think the story sounds really great! The Dao-shi idea is awesome, and I'm really looking forward to this fic! I think her name should be Terra that or maybe Shane…or if you like, Shauna. Chrissy also sounds good. Sorry if you don't like any of the names, I'm really tired, and don't really have any inspiration at the moment. I'll probably come up with something genius later.

To glitter galz: you could add me to msn, but I'm never on to talk to, or anything. Sorry!

To hannah: I'm not suppose to respond to reviews because it's against the rules now, glad that you like all the OCs. Anyway, Tamao is only semi-insane (I have no idea why Takei would do that to her, but I'm just going by the manga.), and Chocolove is in jail for the crimes he committed (all the people he murdered) while he was the leader of SHAFT. He turned himself in at the end of the manga. At least that's what I think happened, I read it in French, and my French is horrible. They really need to get the manga translated into English faster.

PLEASE REVIEW!


	7. Waking Up

Mikau: Hello everyone! Sorry that this took so long to get out; I have musical rehearsals every day this week for several hours, and I'm having a hard time finding time to write. Gomen people.

**_Disclaimer:_** I don't own Shaman King.

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Waking Up

My eyes slowly slithered open. I blinked several times, the bright sunlight stinging my eyes.

"You okay?" A light, cheerful, voice met my ears. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I remembered the voice, but I couldn't really say I had actually heard the voice before. It wasn't a concerned voice as one might expect, but instead, I got the impression that she was making fun of me somehow, even if I hadn't done anything wrong. She didn't speak in a condescending way, but something in the trill of her words irked me, and struck me as she was teasing me, like my elder sister had done so many times before. Yet, unlike Hoshi's brutal teasing, this voice seemed to be joking friendily with me.

I struggled to sit up, but my body was stiff from lying unconscious for some while now. I resigned myself to lying still for a while more, and took in my surroundings. I was in what looked like a fancy guest room of some ritzy hotel. Everything was bright, warm, and inviting. The bed, especially, was warm and comfortable. The whole room was cozy, and I felt just like I would in my room at home.

Next to the bed sat a woman who looked just a year or so older than me, but the aura about her suggested that she was actually a good ten years older than I was. She looked as if she had stopped aging when she turned seventeen. She was built short, with wide hips, a flat stomach, and an expressive face. Her eyes especially told you exactly what she was thinking. Her lips were on the smallish side of medium, and her nose was just a smidge off-center if you squinted, but of course, I was trying to find something imperfect about her, so whether or not her nose was actually off-center, I couldn't tell. Her eyes were a murky blue-green, like the sea during a storm, and her hair was waist length, and silvery like moonbeams reflected off of steaming hot-spring water. She was thin, yet busty. She had a definite defiant air about her. Her clothes looked familiar, like something I had seen my mother wear in the pictures I had of her. This woman was wearing green capris like the ones the boys at Shinra Private Academy wore as uniform pants, and a black belly-shirt/tank top deal. On her left ring finger, she wore a simple golden band in place of a wedding ring. Her outfit seemed to suit her just fine, but I had never really seen anyone wear anything like it before.

"Hello?" Her eyebrows arched slightly, yet her joking smile remained. "I asked if you where okay. Do you not speak or something?"

"I…I'm fine…" I somehow managed to get out. Something about the woman made me nervous, like she had expectations of me, and I needed to live up to them.

"May I see your left calf?"

I thought that this was a strange request, and I said so.

"Sorry…I just wanted to see where that bullet got you. That is where you were shot, isn't it?" The silver-haired girl smiled kindly at me, but that teasing tone was still in her voice.

"Oh! Sorry…" I showed her my leg.

"It's okay." She assured, and set to work inspecting the bullet wound.

I had almost forgotten about my gun going off and getting my leg during the fight in the graveyard.

"It'll heal nicely, but it'll leave a scar." Her tone turned grave, and her face took on a reminiscing look, as if she was remembering something painful from her past. "A scar on your left calf." Her hand unconsciously brushed against her own calf. "You could wear pants to cover it up, but I suggest using those boots." She pointed to the black leather boots that Hoshi had given me.

I nodded my thanks, but then my curiosity got the better of me and I had to ask, "Who are you?"

"Oh! Sorry…I'm I—er…Valerie Kyôyama. Nice to meet you Miss…?" She waited for me to introduce myself.

"Uh…I'm Thorn." I gulped, something about her scared me. She didn't seem to be real, or truly alive for that matter.

"Got a last name?" Valerie urged.

"Asakura." I completed, and I couldn't help but feel that she had tricked me into revealing some sort of secret information about myself that she could use against me later.

"Hao's daughter?" She took a cool cloth off of my head and re-wet it.

She said his name so familiarly, as if she were on par with him. No one I knew called my father just plain old 'Hao'. It was always 'Hao-sama', or 'Master Hao'. Never just 'Hao'. "You know my father!"

"I use to. I can't really say I know him now, since I haven't seen him in…never mind. It's just been a long, long time, and I doubt he'd recognize me." She playfully flipped a long silver bang out of her face as a sorrowful expression threatened to take over. "How is your family anyway? Your sister? Servants? Guardians? Father? Mother?"

I stared blankly at her before answering. "Hoshi is a slut as always, but she can be okay sometimes. She hasn't contracted any sexually transmitted diseases yet, and that's always good. The servants are fine. Luca, Opacho, Mari, Macchi, and Kanna are good. Hane's fine, and I don't have a mother. I hate my mother." I could have sworn I caught a glimpse of hurt on her face for a split second, but she covered it well, and the next second, her small smile was back in place.

"What of your father?" Valerie blinked innocently at me, playing dumb, but I knew she had been secretly waiting for me to tell her how Hao was doing.

"He's…not so good." I grudgingly admitted.

"What! What's the matter! What happened! Is he sick! What do you mean he's not okay!" Valerie went on spazzing out for the next few minutes before I could get her to shut up and calm her down so that I could explain.

"Well…his drinking is getting worse…"

I thought I heard her reply under her breath, 'Damn you Hao! I told you not to drink!', but I couldn't be sure. I might have just been hearing things.

"Like, today he came home slobbering drunk…He didn't even recognize me…" I could feel the tears come back to my eyes. "He confuses me with my mother a lot when he's drunk…It really hurts me." Valerie encircled me in a half-hug.

"Poor thing…he doesn't mean to be an insensitive bastard…he just is sometimes. You'll have to just forgive him and get over it. He really does care about you, I'm sure…he was really excited when he found out that you were going to be born. He really did want twin girls." Valerie drifted off into her memories, and I was left wondering how the hell she knew so much about my father.

"He did? He never told me that…" Valerie released me from her hold and sat at the end of the bed, Indian style.

"He doesn't tell a lot of people a lot of things. He tends to keep important details to himself until last minute. Especially when it comes to his world domination and human-eradication plots."

"What!" I raised an eyebrow at the strange woman.

"Nothing." She winked at me, and the secretive expression on her face made me laugh. I was starting to really like this weird woman. "Now, when did this drinking start?"

"Oh, he rarely drinks, but when he does drink, he gets really drunk. Usually he only drinks the week of March tenth, and on January first, but this year, he's been wasted the entire month of March. But that's because today, March tenth, is my mother's birthday."

"My birthday was two days ago." She told me. It sounded as if she was correcting me, but I wasn't exactly sure just what she was trying to correct about what I had said. She seemed to sense my confusion, and tried to explain herself. "You see, my birthday and Ivy's are both on March tenth."

"You know my mother!" I still missed the fact that she was trying to tell me something.

Valerie scrunched up her nose a bit in thought before answering. "Sort of…I guess you could say I knew Ivy."

"I bet she was a total bitch. I mean, she just left us without any real reason. She could have staid. Dad says constantly that we could have worked around her situation, and that they could have been happy."

I was too busy concentrating on fuming about my mother, that I didn't see the sharp pains of hurt that spread across the woman's face. "She was a bitch…still is…she would have been a horrible mother, and you would have hated her even if she had staid." Valerie wiped a small tear from her eyes. A light drizzling rain started outside the bedroom window.

"What kind of woman leaves her children like that!" I continued venting my stored up frustration.

"Ivy did…, but did you ever consider that she had a reason?"

"There is no reason!" I insisted. These were things I had never told anyone before, but I felt that I could tell Valerie anything. "She could have staid, but she didn't!"

"Well, I suppose you're right…she shouldn't have left, but it's too late now." Valerie let out a tired sigh, and stood up to leave the room, a disheartened look on her face. "Goodbye for now, Thorn."

"Wait!" I grabbed at her clothing. She stopped, turned around, and looked questioningly at me. "Don't go…" I pleaded. "I…I really like talking to you. I don't have anyone that I can really talk to at home, and I've never really, well, told anyone any of this stuff before. Somehow…even if we've just met…I feel that…I can talk to you. Please stay?"

A bright, friendly grin returned to her face, and she happily replied. "Well, I'm glad you feel that way. Feel free to come here anytime to talk to me. I like talking to you too, but right now there's someone else who's been waiting to speak with you. And besides, I have to work on something in the laboratory with Dr. Faust." Valerie waved a quick 'goodbye', and left.

A few seconds after the door closed behind Valerie, it opened again for another. In walked the boy from the graveyard. Hana. He walked up to my bedside casually, and took a seat next to me. "Hey! How ya feeling?"

"Better…Thank you." I turned away from his handsome face and blushed.

"Hey, why the blush? We're cousins." He took me by the chin and turned me to face him, his smiling face inches from mine.

"Cousins!" My eyes widened considerably. "How do you figure that!"

"Hao's your father, right?"

I nodded.

"Hao's brother Yoh is my father, so that makes us cousins. Also, if that weren't enough, Anna is my mother, and Anna's sister Ivy is your mother, so were like…doubly cousins!" I stared at him blankly, waiting for Hana's logic to sink in.

"C-cousins?" I blinked a few times at him. He nodded happily. "Well…I guess that's cool…I've always wanted a cousin."

"Me too!" Hana happily chirped. "I'm an only child, so I really didn't have anyone to hang with when I was little. Sure I had my friends, but I really just wanted a twin or a cousin or something. I've always been jealous of both of my parents for having twins."

"I have a twin, and believe me, you don't want one. They're more trouble than they're worth." I warned, remembering my own twin…Hoshi.

"That's what everyone says." He smiled back at me. "Oh, I almost forgot—some people are here to see you. Bring them in Makoto!" Hana called over his shoulder to the door.

In stepped the three shaman from the graveyard: Ivory, and Akira, herded in by Makoto. I scooted back in bed, and glared at them.

"Easy woman, we're just here to apologize." Akira spat at me, glaring back, the point of his hair growing a couple of inches.

"Well, you're doing a fine job of it already. Apology accepted, now get out." I sent a challenging look his way, really saying, 'Come and get me, you son of a—'

"—You little!" Akira had heard my underlying message, and pulled out a sai, holding it up to my throat.

"Now, now, Akira!" Ivory shoved her cousin out of the way, and put her arm around my shoulders. "We came here to apologize to the poor thing, not to decapitate her! Besides, if you did kill her, it'll just be a waste of a perfectly good woman! Rarely do you find a woman this hott!"

Akira looked disgustedly at his cousin as she turned to talk to me. "Hello! I don't think we've been properly introduced—I'm Ivory Usui, and if you ever need a date, here's my phone number, home address, email address, aim, and cell phone number."

"Uh…thanks, but I really don't like girls like that." I carefully lifted her arm off of my shoulder. "My name is Thorn Asakura, by the way."

"Oh, but I could be a boy if you wanted me to!" Ivory insisted excitedly.

"Well, the thing is I really don't like boys like that either." I laughed nervously.

"Awww…drat!" Ivory removed herself from the bed, and went to hang on Hana's shoulder. "Well at least I have you Hana darling."

"Are you saying that you've never been in love?" Makoto stepped forward, and hesitantly pushed his glasses up further on his nose. "I'm Makoto Oyamada, by the way."

"No I haven't." I shrugged, responding to his question.

"Maybe you just haven't found the right guy?" Hana suggested while trying to free himself from Ivory's amorous grasp.

The short blonde spoke up again. "She should come to the masquerade party! It's tomorrow night at eight pm to twelve, and there's sure to be tons of guys there. There's bound to be at least one acceptable one."

Hana shoved an invitation into my hand, and smiled brightly at me. "That's a great idea! You're sure to meet someone! There's going to be people from all over the place, and lots of guys from my school are coming, and it's just gonna be great!"

"It sounds like…fun. Though…I've never been to anything like that before. What does one wear to a masquerade ball?" I cocked my head to the side and stared at my cousin.

"Uncivilized wretch." Akira rolled his eyes at me. "What do you think you'd wear! Everyone wears a fancy decorated mask, and an evening gown for girls, and suits for boys. Though, Ivory, I don't know what you're going to wear since you really don't qualify for either category."

Ivory promptly smacked the Tao upside the head. "Ignore him; nothing he says is worth listening to anyway."

Hana laughed nervously at his friends. "Well, it'll be fun I hope you can go."

"But I don't have a dress." I interjected.

"Borrow one of your mother's." A new voice entered the conversation. All eyes turned toward the door. The woman from before, Valerie, stepped in. Her silvery hair was pulled up in a high ponytail, safety goggles were resting on top of her head, and she had some ashy smudges on her face that looked like something had blown up right in front of her.

"Sorry to interrupt, but I accidentally left a bottle of Hydrogen in here, and I overheard you when I came back for it." Valerie waltzed over to my bedside table and picked up a small vial that I had failed to notice before.

"Wait, my mother's clothes?" I blinked at her, scarcely hearing what she had said.

"Yep. Ivy has a dress up in her closet that she's never worn before. You'll know which one I'm talking about once you see it. She was going to wear it for her wedding anniversary party on January first, but unfortunately things got in the way." Valerie's pleasant smile diminished slightly, but quickly reappeared when she looked at the other people in the room. "Hello everyone!"

"Hey Miss Valerie! How are you doing this fine day?" Ivory had hearts in her eyes as she spoke with the older woman.

"I'm no worse than usual. Anna, Faust, and I are getting closer to making a body that actually works though." Valerie gave a wry smile.

"Well, I must say that that color silver of your hair goes perfectly with the blue-green of your eyes." Ivory continued to compliment.

"Thanks, but I really don't like them. How are you today, Akira? Grumpy as always? You know, you really should smooth the point of your hair down for the masquerade. Otherwise, it would be too easy to tell who you are." The silver-haired maiden gave one last smile at Ivory before turning to the Ainu's cousin.

"Well, well, well…'Valerie' is it? I'm doing fine. I'm here to apologize to this simple creature," He motioned towards me. I growled softly at him. "and then I'll be on my way. There are too many chemical explosions here for my liking."

"She may be a simple creature, but she's smarter than you." I smiled gratefully at Valerie, and she winked back.

"Good morning Miss Valerie-sama. I hope you are in good health today, my lady." Makoto lowered his head to my new idol.

"You know you don't have to do that every time that I walk into a room Makoto. But, thank you just the same." A quick wink in Makoto's direction was enough to make the shy boy blush.

Last but not least, Valerie finally turned towards Hana. "Hey Auntie V! Glad to hear you're making some progress with your experiments."

"Thanks Hana. I appreciate it." The aunt tossed a wink back at her nephew.

"Do you know if my mom is around?" Hana asked.

"Yeah, she's in the kitchen. Why?" Valerie was just about to leave the room as Hana asked her the location of his mother.

"Oh…no reason. I sort of was suppose to clean my room, and chances are that I might not have actually cleaned it." My cousin nervously admitted.

"Don't worry, I'll take care of it. See you all later." Valerie again attempted to leave.

Once again, someone stopped her, "Hey Valerie, will I see you at the Masquerade?" Ivory asked inquisitively excited.

"No. I don't think so." She answered the other girl.

"Why the blazes not!" Akira sounded almost scandalized at the thought that Valerie wouldn't be there at the ball.

"I just don't feel like going." With one last wink, Valerie was gone.

"Hana, I thought that your aunt was really in to parties and stuff like that. Is she not feeling well?" Makoto asked his best friend, worried about his aunt's health.

"She's just a little out of it lately." Hana sighed.

"She's your aunt?" I looked to my right at Hana. He nodded back at me, 'Uh-huh.' "Then I suppose she's mine too, isn't she? She's my mother's cousin, right?"

"Uh…well…if she were your mother's cousin, technically that would make her your second cousin, but I've just always called her 'Aunt'. I think she would like it better if you just called her 'Valerie', or 'Val', though." He suggested with a smile.

Akira cleared his throat, interrupting the on-going conversation.

"Yes?" Ivory rolled her eyes, and replied rudely.

"I came here to apologize, and I have, so let's leave." Akira glowered at me, clearly bored, and unwilling to waste his time with me.

"If I remember correctly, the word 'sorry' never left your mouth." Ivory glared at her cousin.

"Fine. I'm sorry. There, are you happy? Can we go now?" Akira started to make his way toward the door.

A shuriken, throwing star just missed hitting his head. "Say it like you mean it." Ivory threatened.

"I'm really sorry that I caused you injuries that rendered you unconscious for two days. Now can we go?" Akira was already out the door before he got an answer.

"See ya later Hana, Makoto, Thorn!" The blue-haired Ainu waved and blew kisses at us before ducking out the door behind her cousin.

"I gotta go too." Makoto bowed humbly to the both of us, and made his way out the door.

Hana and I were the only ones left in the room. "TWO DAYS?" I nearly fainted as my brain registered what that meant.

"Yeah, I thought you knew. I thought that I—er—Valerie told you." Hana apologized sheepishly.

"Oh. My. GOD! My dad is going to kill me when I get home!"

"Actually, he knows you're here, my mom called your house just after you woke up, and it's not really your fault that this whole thing happened." Hana rested a comforting hand on my shoulder, and it helped a little, but not really.

"Yeah, but…still." I forced my way to my feet, fighting my body all the way. I was so sore and stiff! When I finally got into a standing position, I noticed that I was already dressed in clothes that were definitely not mine. They looked too good on me to be my clothes. A red tank top, and a black pair of capris.

"Who dressed me?" I demanded of my cousin.

"That would be Anna and Valerie." He smiled awkwardly.

I nodded back at him, and then asked timidly. "If I may, what is it exactly that they're working on in the lab?"

"I'm not really sure…I'm not very informed about the things that happen in this house. All I know is that for some reason they have to reconstruct a shaman body that will function as if it were a real body. They call it project 'Corpse Bride' or something like that…Don't ask anymore of me, I'm afraid that I've said too much already. Both my mom and aunt are really strict about not telling anyone anything." He winked and held out his pinkie, "Our little secret?"

I smiled back and linked pinkies with him. "Our little secret. But, how do they know if the bodies will work?" I couldn't help but ask more questions about this mysterious experiment that they had been working on for ten or so years.

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Mikau: I really don't like how I ended this chapter…hmm. Well the next chapter should be good for all my HaoxIvy fans out there. At least I hope I get to that part next chapter…if not, I'll get to it the chapter after next. That's sort of when the plot thickens. Sort of. Well, that's all from me for now.

Thanks to: Hemila-Rose, your-wOrst-nightmARee, ChibiAzn3, LisaTheHedgehog, glitter galz, Andrea Nefisto, morgan000, KaZuYa MiNeKuRa, lil.blu.clover, Danny, MaiValentinefan, HAO-Addictive, Kiva Kyoyama, and ShadowYasha.

PLEASE REVIEW!


	8. Delusional

Mikau: Sorry that I've taken so long to get this up…as you can tell, it's sort of a longer-type chapter, and a lot of thought went into writing it. I didn't get the ending quite perfect, but I think it more or less accomplished what I wanted of it. Once again, I'm really sorry about the long wait. It's been a terrible week full of tests every other class, tons of homework, musical practices, and all other sorts of stuff. It's been a tough week; one of my best friends since forever told me how she was thinking about committing suicide. I think she's better now, but…yeah…I think the reason that Hao sounds so depressed during the first part of the chapter is because I'm having a really depressing week. Well, I hope you all enjoy this one, I actually like it despite the depressingness.

**_Disclaimer:_** I don't own Shaman King.

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Delusional

I slowly made my way up the stairs to the old abandoned bedroom. I sometimes went up there just to look at old pictures, and remember all the good times before my life became a living hell.

Not that I didn't love my daughters or being Shaman King—it's just that without Ivy there with me, I felt so dead and empty inside. Everything was pointless without her. She was the reason that I lived, and now that she was gone, I had a hard time finding reasons to get up in the morning. It was barely enough to stop me from killing myself, but it _was _a reason to live. I lived for Hoshi and Thorn.

Once I realized that that was all I had in the world, those two girls, I started thinking if they were even worth it. They would be fine without me; it's not like I was a good father or anything. Sure as Hell, I tried, but I couldn't help but feel that I had failed miserably. I was too lenient on Hoshi, and she had managed to turn herself into a whore. I tried to stop her, but found that it was too late to do anything; all I could do was pray that she didn't get any STDs or unplanned pregnancies. So instead of fixing Hoshi, I protected Thorn. I think I protected her a little too much; I hardly allowed her to be a girl. She was too sheltered, and wouldn't be able to survive in the real world. Either way, I had failed them both as a father.

Soon I turned to drinking. That and women. I couldn't do anything to keep them from knowing about my drinking problem. After all, there are only two things that a man can't hide: 1, that he's in love, and 2, that he's drunk. Since I could do nothing about the former, I made sure that no one found out about the latter, especially Thorn. She'd hate me for it.

I think Hoshi finally found out what I was doing; sneaking off at night to drink and sleep with at least three different women each night, and then sneaking back into the house before anyone else was up. One morning Hoshi told me about a more effective method of getting lipstick stains and perfume scent out of my clothing. Hoshi didn't tell her sister what I was up to, and Thorn remained in the dark about my late night escapades.

It didn't take long for my undying lust for women to become an unquenchable thirst. It was like an incurable disease, or some kind of drug addiction. That's when Thorn started to get suspicious. I tried to tone it down, but I just couldn't control myself any more. Mari and Macchi came to my rescue that time, happily offering their services since neither had gotten married.

They helped a lot. Soon I was back to my normal pyromaniac self. Sure I still needed Mari and Macchi sometimes, but I wasn't so sex-driven anymore. But still, I felt badly using them like that when I had absolutely no feelings for them, but they were so in love with me. After sixteen years, I was still in love with Ivy, and had refused to remarry dispite all of Kanna's lecturing.

Soon, I only drank on anniversaries, birthdays, and other holidays. I was pretty happy with my dull, pointless life. I even once considered dating again, but seconds after the thought had formulated in my mind, I ruled against it. I decided that I was doomed to be a single dad my whole life, and I would force myself to be happy that way. I was mentally unable to date again: I would just end up calling the girl 'Ivy', and that just would not do. Plus, I was the Shaman King; girls would probably date me for my power or to try and get rich whereas Ivy had married me for love…At least I was pretty sure she did…

One year, my drinking got pretty bad again; it was the year that the twins were sixteen. I don't know why, but I just was so depressed, and started drinking more and more. Soon I found myself coming home drunk a lot with woman's make up all over my pants, and shirt collar.

One day, March tenth, Ivy's birthday, I hit rock bottom. I came home early in the morning, so drunk that I couldn't see, think, or walk straight. Thorn met me at the door, but I couldn't tell it was her. I was just too drunk. The thing that woke me from my drunken stupor was when she sighed in such a defeated way, and stated: "You're drunk."

That was the worst thing she could have said to me. "Dad, I hate you." would have hurt less. I tried to deny it, but facts were facts, and I had to admit that I had a problem. I let Thorn go to town that day because I thought that maybe I had been wrong about her, and that she could take care of herself. I thought that maybe I had been too overbearing. I kept on telling myself that up until the point where she didn't come home on time.

I waited an hour more, thinking that maybe she had lost track of time, or had just forgot what time she was suppose to be home, even maybe that her watch stopped and she didn't know what time it was. 'She'll be home any time now.' I repeated over and over to myself. I tried not to worry when I noticed that it was raining really hard. I used the storm as an excuse for her not to be home. 'The rain must be holding her up. She's the smart one, and she knows better than to try and make it home in this weather.' I really started to worry around four o'clock when the rain had blown over an hour or so earlier and she still wasn't home. When at four fifteen she still had not shown up, I went out and looked for her.

It was no use; she was nowhere to be found. By the second day she had been missing, I just gave up and told myself that she had run away, just like all the other important women in my life. I forgot about the promise I made to Thorn and got really drunk.

And those are the events that led to me walking up the stairs to the abandoned bedroom. I just needed to sit down and think. I needed to reassess my life and my reasons for living. I finally made it up all those flights of stairs and into the room. I walked over to Ivy's vanity, and picked up a random piece of jewelry.

I jumped when a hand rested hesitantly on my shoulder, "What are you doing Hao?"

I spun around, my face as white as a sheet, and my eyes the size of tiny pinpricks. All I could do was stare; two raven-black eyes stared back at me. "Hao?" A soft, creamy white hand gently caressed my cheek. "You don't look so good…"

"You're…" I could hardly catch my breath to talk.

"What? Stunningly beautiful? The most gorgeous woman in the entire universe? Sexy beyond sexy?" Two crimson lips smirked evilly at me.

"All of the above…" I took her in my arms, and ran my fingers through her coffee brown hair. "Are you really here?"

Ivy only raised an eyebrow at me and felt of my forehead. "Are you feeling okay? Of course I'm here, where else would I be? I didn't have any last minute shopping to do, and besides, it's too late to go anywhere."

"Ivy, I had the scariest nightmare! You were gone, and Thorn had run away, and Hoshi was—"

"—Whoa, slow down! Why would I leave, and how could Thorn run away? She's only a few days old." Ivy paused for a moment, and carefully scrutinized me. "Are you drunk?"

"Uh…" I couldn't answer her at first because I was busy taking in what she had just said. 'How could Thorn run away? She's only a few days old.' "Ivy, what day is it?"

My wife raised a concerned eyebrow at me before reluctantly glancing at the diamond-studded watch I had gotten her while we were in Paris. "It's New Years Eve, 11:43 pm. My sister is coming over with Pai Long, and Ren is bringing Pilika and Akira any time now, so you should probably get ready for the party. You know, I still can't believe that Pilika was pregnant during the last few months of the Shaman Fight before they were actually married…who knew? She hid it so well, and Ren did a good job hiding it too…Anyway, I'm getting myself off track. Get ready, they should be here really soon." Ivy was about to walk off to greet the guests, but I grabbed her arm, stopping her in mid-step.

"Ha—" I cut her off with my lips, taking out all my sorrow, frustration, loneliness, and pain on her in that one kiss. I had missed her so much, and I needed to have her there with me.

I held her in my embrace like she would disappear if I let go. "Ivy, please never leave me…I love you."

The confused brunette relaxed in my hold and fiddled with a loose strand of my hair. "God, Hao…we've been over this: I love you, and I don't want to leave. You'd have to force me away from you. I'll die before I leave you. Though, I must admit, you're acting a bit clingy, Hao…" Ivy smirked seductively up at me.

I took her invitation to kiss her again. "Clingy am I?"

"Hehehe! Yes! But Hao, one more thing…"

"Yes?"

"_Wake up." _Her voice came from far away, and had a hollow echo to it. _"Hao? Wake up! Hao-sama?"_

I sat straight up in bed, and my head nearly collided with Macchi's. "Hao-sama?" Her right hand came to rest on my shoulder while the other held the bed sheet up to cover her chest.

"Ma-chi?" I stuttered slightly, my voice having a ghost of a slur in it.

"You sound disappointed…" She looked away, a faint blush highlighting her cheeks.

I tried to take in my surroundings, but they weren't very familiar. It looked like a room in my mansion, but it wasn't _my_ room. The walls were painted dark purple with orange jack-o-lanterns. Fake spider webs hung from the ceiling, and other Halloween decorations adorned the room.

"What happened? Where the hell am I? And why do I have such a killer headache?" All of the sudden, the numbness of sleep left me, and I could once again feel pain. My head was throbbing, and my body was unusually heavy and useless.

Macchi gently brushed a bang out of my face. "You're in my room. Last night, you were really depressed, so you got _really, _really drunk, and then we…" Her voice trailed off, and she refused to look at me.

I was left to make my own assumptions as to what had occurred between the two of us the previous night, but I could make a pretty good guess based on the fact that we were both sharing her bed. "Macchi…I am so sorry…I…I shouldn't have used you like that…I—"

She pressed a long, slender finger to my lips, a cute blush reappearing on her cheeks. "—Shhh…You know I don't mind. I'd do anything to help my Hao-sama…I love you…"

"Macchi…" I sighed apologetically. She knew I couldn't say it back to her, and yet she said it anyway. It only made me feel even worse about using her.

"I know…I'm sorry." It was as if she was the one able to read thoughts.

"Thank you. You're the best friend anyone could ask for. I'd be in a hell of a lot of trouble without you." I playfully flipped a strand of her bright orange hair and she smiled wryly at me.

I caught a fleeting thought as she lay back down facing the wall so that I couldn't see her tears. 'Yes…I'm your best friend now am I? That's only because you can't sleep with Opacho! You call me a friend, but what you really mean to say is play toy! I mean nothing to you, yet you mean everything to me…'

"Macchi?"

"What…?" She reluctantly rolled over onto her back so that I could look down at her.

"You know I don't think that way about you." I wiped the tears from her eyes lightly as I had done for Ivy so many times before.

Her pale blush returned, and she closed her eyes, trying to act defiant. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

I rolled my eyes and teasingly nipped her at the collarbone. "Fine. We can play that way if you want."

Macchi swatted me away and sighed "Hao-sama, don't…" She paused before switching topics completely. "You know, I was thinking that it would be a good idea if you got remarried."

"WHAT!" I stared blankly at her, sitting straight up in bed.

"You heard me; the girls need a mother, and you need a woman."

"But I—" I started to protest.

"No buts! Promise me that you'll try to fall in love again." I looked away from her, sighing in the most depressed way I could muster. "Hao! Ivy isn't here for you anymore, so you need to just forget about her, and think of what's best for you and your daughters!"

"Macchi, Thorn isn't coming back, Hoshi has no need of a mother, and I have you and Mari. My life has become completely pointless, so I don't see the need to get married again. It was hard enough the first time…"

A loud THWACK resounded throughout the entire four stories of the house. My hand shot up to my cheek in pure shock. Macchi's slaps weren't as powerful as, say…Anna's, but they still had force to them. I blinked a few times at her, desperately trying to understand what had just happened to me.

"Hao, don't say that. Only one of those things is true. Yes, Mari and I will be there for you, but we are not your wives, and we can only do so much. Sure, we do everything that wives would do, but we aren't rightfully yours. We can't always be there to dig you out of every ditch you fall into. You need to get married. You just can't hold together on your own any longer."

"But who could I get to marry me when I'm still so obsessed with my first wife?"

Macchi looked like she might explode. 'You idiot! MMMMMMEEEEEEE!' She pushed me down forcibly onto the bed, and pressed herself up against me, kissing me hard and full on the lips. She kissed me passionately, but I only kissed her back reluctantly. She pulled back and smiled down at me, triumphantly. "The right woman is closer than you think. Open your eyes and you just might find her."

I knew she was talking about herself, but I also knew I would be unable to marry her, so I just played along and gave her a soft peck on the cheek. "Thank you Macchi."

"You're welcome." She smiled sweetly. "Now go downstairs and eat something."

I nodded, and did as she said. I pulled on a pair of pants, and went down to the kitchen, where I was surprised to find that hardly anyone else was in the room. A few servants, a few followers, but other than that the house seemed dead. 'Just like everything else in my life…'

Sebastian, the head chef, and Ivy's favorite, greeted me kindly and asked if I wanted anything. I winced slightly whenever he addressed me. His voice triggered memories of Ivy ordering her favorite, often disgusting to normal people, dishes. Sebastian always made the—for lack of better word—food without question, all the while trying not to throw up.

I acknowledged the older man with a nod, and promptly told him to tell all the workers to take a day off and get out of the house. The chef looked startled, and asked me if I felt all right. I simply replied that I wanted the house empty for the day.

I needed to think, and it would be hard with all the people in the mansion. After I was sure that everyone had left, I reentered the kitchen and started to make something remotely edible. I was told that I was a splendid chef, but I didn't really care to make my own meals. I took my plate to the table and sat down with my back to the main doorway.

"I thought you said that you didn't like cooking." A familiar, melodic voice accused.

I almost fell out of my seat as I whipped around to look at the woman standing behind me. The red tank top, black mini skirt, bright red lipstick, heart pendant choker, light hair, dark eyes, and black leather boots were a welcome sight after so many years of only seeing them in dreams.

"Ivy…I thought you were—"

"—Shhh…You should know by now that I always come back to you. I just can't keep away…" Something was off about the way she smiled at me, but I ignored it. I wanted so badly for it to be true that she had somehow returned to me.

Ivy pushed me back into a sitting position in the chair, and she too sat by straddling me while facing me. Her arms snaked around my neck, her fingers entangled in my hair, and her face crept closer and closer to mine.

My arms took an automatic position around her waist as she drew closer. "Hao?" She stopped a breath away from my lips, teasing me.

"Yes?"

"I'd get into Heaven before Ivy comes back to you." That was _definitely_ not Ivy's voice. Two lips met mine for a quick kiss, but then pulled back.

"LUCIFER!" I pushed the devil disguised as my wife to the floor, and held an oversouled fire sword to his throat.

"Hello Hao!" He greeted pleasantly, but did not take on his own appearance. "It's been awhile since we've seen each other, and _this _is how you greet me?"

"You bastard." I wiped my lips clean and glared at the demon lying on my kitchen floor. "What are you doing here looking like _that_?" I tried to keep my voice steady, but had little success.

"Isn't it obvious? I'm here to torment you, and this is the best way I know how. Now, be a darling, and take that flaming piece of metal away from my throat." He gestured toward my oversouled Spirit of Fire. I have to admit, it was sort of freaky to hear Lucifer's voice coming out of Ivy's body.

"No. I'll sooner run you through." I held the weapon to his stomach and prepared to kill.

"_Fine. Kill me. It's not like you haven't done it before." _ Ivy's voice echoed throughout the kitchen.

I couldn't do it. Even if it was only Lucifer pretending to be her, I couldn't kill her; not in the same way as eighteen years ago. It was bound to cause horrible nightmares of before…

"_Aha…I see…You can't harm your precious Ivy. Even if I'm only using her appearance and voice…you still can't kill me."_ Lucifer smiled evilly and pushed the sword out of the way, stepping closer to me in the process.

I stepped back, and he followed me. It wasn't long before I was backed up against the kitchen counter. Trapped—He had gotten me, and he knew it.

The evil sneer on my wife's face was unbefitting at least, but it did give her a sort of demonic beauty. I slapped myself mentally, having to constantly remind myself that it wasn't really Ivy. "W-what do you want?" I was disgusted as I heard my usually confident voice stutter nervously.

"_It's not what I want, it's what you want Hao. Ask anything of me, and I'll give it to you." _Lucifer pressed himself up against me, taking full advantage of my attraction to the body he was currently using.

"I—"

"—_Shhh…You don't have to say anything; I already know what you want." _A promiscuous hand slid down my bare chest to play seductively with my belt buckle.

"Get your hands off of me!" I tried to push him away, but my body was too reluctant to let Ivy go.

"_Oh, but I don't want to, and we both know that you don't want me to either. Say the word Hao, and I'll bring her back to you. I can even reverse the clock, and take you back sixteen years ago. You'll get all your wasted time back, and you can be together for the rest of your lives. What do you say Hao? Don't you love me?"_ He gently caressed my cheek and leaned in to kiss me.

"No." I finally came to my senses and plunged my sword through his gut even if he did look like Ivy.

"_AHHHHHHHHHH! HAO!" _He dropped to his knees and curled over in pain; intense flames cascaded from the wound in place of blood.

"Hello? Is, like, someone there?" A high-pitched voice echoed from right outside the doorway. Hoshi sashayed stylishly into the kitchen with a perplexed look on her face. She took one look at me and then glanced down to the figure on the floor. "Dad! MOM?"

I could only stare at her as she looked about ready to faint. Lucifer seemed to suddenly get over his excruciating bout of pain as he staggered to his feet and pulled out my sword. His wound instantly healed, and he took on his regular appearance. His mahogany hair was pulled up in a ponytail, and his eyes switched back from dark brown, to their usual chocolate color. He wore a black long-sleeved shirt that was cut to leave his shoulders exposed; it was trimmed in red, and had the characters for 'akuma' on the back. His pants were black at the top near the waist, but the legs themselves were red.

The devil looked at my eldest daughter, and then to me, choosing to ignore the girl. "Wow…that actually hurt. Hao, why do you always have to be so testy?"

"Because. You try my patience." I picked up my sword, never taking my eyes off of him. I returned to a standing position, and tapped his neck lightly with the sword, not enough to draw blood, just to let him know who's boss.

"Fair enough, and speaking of fair, who is that enchanting creature standing in the doorway?" Lucifer made a move toward Hoshi. Her lovely face still held a puzzled look.

I disappeared in a burst of flames, and teleported in front of Hoshi, blocking Satan's path. "She's my daughter, and if you so much as lay a finger on her, I will cut you into tiny shreds, burn the pieces, feed the ashes to fish, and then burn the fish to ashes as well."

My lethal tone seemed to get the point across to him, for he shrugged uninterestedly and turned on his heel. The demon picked up a piece of buttered toast and seated himself at the kitchen table. "That's okay…I have no interest in her anyway. She's not a virgin, and she hasn't been for a long time."

"Dad, like, who is that dude who looks just like you?" Hoshi tugged at my arm, ignoring Lucifer's insult.

"His name is Lucifer. Don't go anywhere near him; he's pure evil. Go up to your room where it's safe."

"Come along Chip." Hoshi motioned to her guardian ghost, and the little sparrow obediently followed her up the many sets of stairs to her room.

"Weren't there two of them?" Lucifer asked off-handedly, but I knew he had been waiting to bring Thorn in on the conversation.

"Leave Thorn alone."

"Ah, yes! 'Thorn'. That was her name…the one that looks like Ivy. Tell me, Hao, do you ever find yourself thinking about the girl indecently because of her similarity to her mother?" The smug smirk on his face leaked through in his voice.

I took a seat opposite him and glared menacingly. "Of course not, you sick bastard; she's my daughter." Then a thought came to me as to how I could turn his question on him. "But I bet you think about her that way because of your little crush on Ivy."

"Very observant Hao." The smirk faded from his demonically handsome face.

"What kind of deal did you want to make with me Lucifer?" I picked up the business end of his visit.

That same sadistic smile returned. "I knew you couldn't last much longer without her…Hehehe…very well, Hao; this is what I want: I'll bring her back to you, and give you back those sixteen years that you've wasted without her. Then, when she dies, her soul is mine for all eternity."

"Never. There is no way in Hell that I'll let you have her for even three minutes, let alone all of eternity. I'd much rather give up the Shaman King throne." I would never, in my right mind, give Ivy to him so that I could spend a limited number of years with her.

"Hao, you know I have no interest in the Title. All I want is Ivy." He sent a deadly glare across the table at me.

"Well, you'll never get her, even if it means I never get her either."

"Fine! Take her for all eternity, all even throw in immortality for the two of you, just give me the girl." Lucifer more or less demanded of me.

"What girl?" My eyebrow slowly raised in his general direction. Nothing good could come from bargaining with the devil.

His eyes glowed with a lustful fire, and his voice dropped to a low moan filled with evil intent. "Thorn."

I didn't respond for a minute or so, and for a split second, I actually considered his deal. Lucifer noticed my hesitation, and decided to coax me further. "What do you say Hao? It's more than a fair trade; you get Ivy for keeps, and I get Thorn. That way everyone is happy."

I finally snapped back to my senses, and my paternal instincts kicked in. I punched him. "Leave my daughters alone. You're not getting your hands on either one of them."

The intruder gingerly rubbed his sore nose. "God Hao! Warn me next time will you! Ah, Hell that stings!"

"Never suggest anything like that ever again. Now get out of my house."

"Like I said before—testy; did you wake up on the wrong side of Macchi's bed this morning? Can't you see I'm trying to help get the two of you back together? I don't even know why I bother…I could just take her by force, but instead I choose to do it the hard way. I _will_ have her one day. Mark my words Hao. I _will_ have her!" He jumped to his feet.

"Why are you so obsessed with _my _wife? Can't you find someone else's wife to mess around with?" I spat at him, pushing him back down in his seat.

A crooked smile graced his half-parted lips. "May I remind you that she is your _X-_wife? She doesn't belong to you anymore." I almost caused him bodily injuries, but he was quick to move on to his next sentence; one that made me stop, and look at him differently. "And I'm so obsessed with her because I love her. I want her to be happy, and the only way to make her happy is to reunite her with you, you lucky son-of-a-gun. I've tried over a thousand times to persuade her to become mine, but every time she refuses me, and insists that she will only take you. There's no room in her heart for me because all the space is already occupied by you."

Lucifer's smile had turned into a thin grim line, and his once smug and somewhat haughty voice had turned sincere and more than just a little bit depressed. He spoke each word from the heart, meaning every letter of it. He was in love with Ivy. I couldn't bring myself to hate him as much as I had before. I could identify with him now because we finally had something in common besides appearance: we were both in love with the same woman, and I knew how it felt to be scorned by her. Eventually I had won Ivy over, but at first she had hated my guts. I knew how Lucifer felt being rejected like that. It's the worst feeling possible in the world.

"I'm sorry." Was all I could manage to mutter.

"You'd better be, Jerk." He shoved a business card into my hand and walked towards the door.

"What's this? A Masquerade Ball at my brother's house tomorrow? Lucifer?" I sent a boggled look his way. Somehow I could feel he heard the confusion in my voice even if he had his back to me.

"Go." The demon's voice shook slightly, but I couldn't tell why. "Go, and make sure you introduce yourself to a girl named 'Valerie Kyôyama'. You'll understand once you meet her."

I opened my mouth to speak, but he cut me off. "Oh, and about your missing daughter…" He waved his hand over his shoulder, and a glowing orb of light was left behind as he left in a cloud of flames. "Goodbye Hao."

I investigated the little glowing ball more thoroughly, and found a floating image on the inside of it. My younger daughter and a blonder version of a certain headphone-clad brother of mine were in the backyard of Funbari Onsen. Thorn was teaching Hana how to spin a gun properly.

"_Here, watch me: Isa, into the antique pistols!" Ivy's old guardian ghost did as her new master commanded. "Now, it's all in the wrists Hana, this is a right-handed spin," She spun the corresponding pistol. "and this is a left-handed spin," The other gun spun around her hand. "and finally, if you get good enough, you can do both at once." Thorn demonstrated the trick._

"_Wow…who taught you to do that? You're so good!" Hana goggled over Thorn's impressive gunmanship._

"_Isabelle showed me the ropes, and then I sort of started making it up from there." Just to show off, Thorn spun both pistols, tossed them up in the air, and caught one behind her back. At the same time, she caught the other in front of her and immediately went into another spin. As if to prove her point, Thorn threw both pistols in the air yet again, this time catching them in the opposite hands, and spinning them in opposite directions. Then, without slowing the spinning motion, she switched the directions that she was spinning the guns. I had had no idea that she was that good with a pair of pistols before._

"_Whoa…I don't even want to learn now, you'll always be so much better than I will." Hana gaped at Thorn a while longer before the crystal went dark._

The phone immediately started to ring the second that the orb disappeared.

"Asakura residence…Hello Anna…Yes, I know…I'll be over to pick her up in an hour or so…No, I'm not an emotional wreck. I got over that two minutes ago…See you then…Thanks…Goodbye Anna." I put the phone back in its holder on the wall, and headed out the door for Funbari Onsen, leaving a note for Hoshi on the kitchen counter.

I reached out to knock on the Hot Spring's door, but Anna opened it before my hand got close enough to touch the wood.

"What took you so long!" She glared her usual cold glower at me. "I thought that after you found out she was here you would poof right over in a burst of fire. What kind of father are you!"

I donned a wry grin and pushed my way past her. "God, Anna. You sure know how to make a guy feel better…Why are you in such a bad mood?"

She followed me into the kitchen, glaring all the way. "I'm always in a bad mood. Do you know how stressful it is to be a mother?"

A low growl escaped my throat, and Anna rethought her question. "I'm sorry Hao…It must have been tough raising both of the girls by yourself."

"I had a lot of help." I admitted. "So…where is she?"

"Out back teaching Hana how to do tricks with a gun. She's really good with a pistol. Just like Iv—" I winced slightly at my X-wife's name. "Sorry Hao…" I received a pity look from my sister-in-law.

"It's okay…" I mumbled. "Is she doing okay?"

"Wait, who!" Anna looked at me in slight alarm.

I raised an eyebrow at her. "My daughter? Thorn? How is she doing?"

"Oh! I thought you meant…never mind. Thorn is fine. She had a really high fever, some minor bumps and bruises, and a bullet wound in her calf." Anna turned her back to me to mess with something on the kitchen counter.

"BULLET WOUND?"

"Relax—the bullet was from her gun…it was only a rubber bullet. Good thing you didn't buy her real ones."

"What kind of father would I be if I gave my child real bullets?" I smirked my usual smile at her.

"You'd be as irresponsible as your brother."

A loud explosion coming from the basement interrupted any further conversation between Anna and me. The whole house quivered, and coughing could be heard followed by a string of German curses, and the sound of footsteps thundered up the wooden basement stairs.

A woman's voice echoed up from the stair well: "ANNA! ANNA! Anna where are you! Anna it didn't work like you said it would, and my hair is still silver! Plus I hate this dress! ANNA! GOD, WHERE ARE Y—"

The footsteps stopped, and there in the doorway was a beautiful silver-haired woman with stormy blue-green eyes. Her silver hair hung down by her hips, and swayed in the wind as she walked. She looked heavenly in an off-white wedding gown complete with veil. Her pale red lips slightly parted and she stopped in mid-sentence when she caught sight of me.

Our eyes locked. My heart hammered against the walls of my chest, my mouth went dry, and I couldn't breathe. My blood froze in my veins, and I couldn't tear my eyes away from her. Never had another woman had such an effect on me. None save for Ivy, but I wasn't really thinking about Ivy at the moment; the only thing on my mind right then, was the silver-haired beauty.

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Mikau: Well? How was that for Ivy and Hao's first meeting in sixteen years? I'm excited about the next chapter! I can't wait to do some dialogue between the two of them, and then of course there's Hao's reaction to Thorn not coming home for two days to look forward to. That should be funny. Also, I'm excited about Lucifer, and THE MASQUERADE BALL! I hope that turns out well…there are only two directions that that can go, so it'll either be really good, or really disappointing. Anyway, I'm excited. Also, on Tuesday, musical tryouts for Beauty and The Beast are being held at my school. I really hope to be cast as Babette, the feather duster, or one of the Silly Girls, who follow Gaston around. If I get cast, I'll probably only be in the ensemble since I'm only a Sophomore, but ensemble is better than nothing. Tonight I'm going to a mixer with my friends, so I'm trying to get this posted before I leave. Well, thanks to the reviewers, and see you all whenever I get a chance to update again! Also, if you all don't hear from me in awhile, don't worry, I'm just impossibly busy.

Thanks To: animeren, HAO-Addictive, Kiva Kyoyama, morgan000, Hemila-Rose, KaZuYa MiNeKuRa, glitter galz, MaiValentinefan, DarkPisces33, dragonsunlight, ChibiAzn3, Danny, Shamanbabe, Strawberry, yo wuz up, LisaTheHedgehog, oo, and y0ur-w0rst-nightmARee.

PLEASE REVIEW!


	9. Blushable

Mikau: Hello everyone! I'm back! Again, sorry about the inconsistent updates. I've been very busy with homework, play auditions and musical practices. I've also been trying to do more things with my grade-school friends to keep an eye on the one that has been talking about suicide. She seemed better today at the movies (we went to see Sisterhood of The Traveling Pants.), but about an hour ago when I spoke with her on the phone, she seemed depressed again. Sigh…Well, now my three friends and I have a pair of 'traveling pants'. We didn't really like the movie that much, but we did like the idea of four close friends sharing a pair of pants that fit all of them. Since our friendship is so much like the four from the movie, the four of us had to go and get a pair of pants. They are a pair of gray track pants with white strips going up the sides. I'm wearing them at the moment.

**_Disclaimer:_** I don't own Shaman King.

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Blushable

I was down in the lab with Faust, trying to come up with a cure for my un-Ivy-like appearance. I wanted my brown hair and dark eyes back. Anna had suggested mixing something with some-such thing, so the mad doctor and I were experimenting to make a new body for me. The concoction blew up, and I was still left with silver hair and blue-green eyes.

I ran up the basement stairs, shouting for my sister, but she didn't seem to hear me. "GOD ANNA, WHERE ARE Y—" I stopped in mid-sentence when I noticed who was in the room with my twin: Hao.

Our eyes locked, and I found myself unable to look away. In the sixteen years we had been apart, he hadn't changed. He still had the same mahogany, waist-length hair, and chocolaty eyes, but something in his eyes made him seem older. He dressed similarly too. He wore blue jeans with red chaps, and no shirt, but the floofy stars and dangling belts were missing from his attire.

A slow, but steady thumping resounded in my chest for a minute, but it didn't last long. My heart had beaten for only a few fleeting seconds. If I had blood in my veins, it would have been running cold. My breathing slowed to the point where I could scarcely tell I was breathing anymore. My whole body shook at the sight of him. He seemed to be scrutinizing me as carefully as I had been him.

I wondered if he recognized me? I couldn't tell. All I knew was that I was going to faint. My fake body couldn't handle the amount of stress I was putting it through, and the result was my entire system shutting down.

I don't know how long I was out, but it couldn't have been long, because when I woke up, Anna had just made it over to me. Hao had probably teleported over to catch me, since he was the one propping up my body, but he had been further away from me than Anna had.

Hao gingerly brushed a few silver bangs out of my eyes. He carefully readjusted the white veil I was wearing so that it didn't dangle in my face. "Are you okay?"

"Mmhmm…" I didn't trust myself to speak. I didn't want him to know it was me if he hadn't already figured it out. I didn't want him to see me in this fake body. I didn't want him to know that I had been here at Funbari Onsen for sixteen years hiding from him. I couldn't take all the guilt and overwhelming emotions that surrounded me. It was almost unbearable.

"I'm glad…" His face was inches from mine, and the gap was closing fast. I would have gladly kissed him if not for the fact that he pulled back at the last minute, looking away with a heated blush upon his cheeks.

I too blushed, though I don't know how that was possible, for I had no blood, so it couldn't possibly have risen to my cheeks. Finally we were awoken from our trance-like state by Anna clearing her throat. Suddenly the odd position we were in occurred to us, and Hao jumped to his feet, releasing his hold on me, and blushing even more profusely.

He offered his hand to help me stand, and laughed nervously in an apologetic tone. "So sorry…My name's Hao Asakura. I'm Anna's brother-in-law."

Thinking nothing of it at first, I took his hand, but once my flesh made contact with his, I jumped back. His hand was so warm, and mine—well, mine was as cold as death itself. Corpse bodies never offered much warmth. Hao too shuddered a little at my touch, but only at first. As soon as I pulled back, he reached out, grabbed my hand and pulled me to my feet. He pulled a little too hard, and I found myself pressed up against my X-husband with one hand braced on his chest and the other around his neck.

His arms automatically went to my waist, and for the second time that day I found myself close enough to brush his lips with mine. This time I didn't wait for him to change his mind; I kissed him.

Anna rolled her eyes as she slipped out of the room, saying partially to herself, "Figures…get you two together, and it's only a matter of time before you're all over each other." I ignored my sister's comment.

Somewhere off in the distance a gunshot, followed by a yelp of pain sounded, but Hao and I didn't hear any of it. We were too far caught up in the kiss. We didn't even hear the sound of the screen door opening from the backyard into the kitchen until we heard the voices.

"OUCH! Don't do that; that hurts!" Hana's voice yelped.

"It wouldn't have hurt in the first place if you would have held the gun the right way like I told you to." Thorn hissed back at her cousin.

"Well, how was I supposed to know that it would burn me!" Hana whined in response.

"Because I told you not to hold your hand too close to the barrel of the gun, or else when you fire it, it will burn y—DAD!"

Hao pulled away from me, and gasped for air at the sound of his daughter's voice. I stepped away from him and blushed.

Thorn, Hao, Hana, and I just stood there staring at each other for a solid minute before Thorn again broke the silence. "Well…I see you've met Valerie."

"Actually, no…" Hao turned toward me, causing my blushing cheeks, as well as his, to redden. "Is that your name? 'Valerie'?"

"Ahem…yes, I'm Valerie. Valerie Kyôyama. I'm Anna's cousin." I lowered my head so that I wouldn't have to look at him. It was killing me not to be able to tell him who I really was. Smiling apologetically, I lifted my face to meet his gaze. "About what happened, I'm really sorry…personally, I blame this stupid wedding gown. It makes me act totally insane, and I really shouldn't have done that—besides, the dress doesn't even look good on me anyway." I strung my sentences together, rushing straight through them, and spiting out all sorts of information at once, only stopping when Hao placed a finger over my bright red lips.

"Shhh…don't say that; the dress looks ravishing on you. You'll be a gorgeous bride." Shivers ran up and down my spine at his words.

I blushed again. "Y-you think so?" I was just so 'blushable' around him.

"Of course…" He removed the index finger from my lips.

I snapped back from my look of utter bedazzlement, and launched into another rushed blabber. "About the kiss…if you really wanted to, we could just pretend that that didn't happen—_if_ you really wanted, that is. 'Cause I would be fine with it, if you—"

Two lips met mine to shut me up. He had done it to me so many times before when we were married, but back then, it had always been quick kisses; this one was a longer, more passionate kiss. "If that's what you really want, we can pretend that you didn't kiss me, but that kiss I just gave you now, you can't just wish it away like the other…You're really beautiful, you know?" We both look in opposite directions, blushing.

"Wow…you two are just as awkward as teenagers." Thorn commented, and Hana snickered.

Hao threw a glare at Hana, and I threw a shoe, which hit my nephew square in the center of his forehead. Suddenly Hao remembered why he had come in the first place, and rushed over to inspect his daughter. "Thorn! Are you okay! Anna said that your gun went off on you, and…" etc. You get the picture.

It broke my unbeating heart to see my X-husband and daughter together and him fussing over her like that. I regretted letting him go, and I hated the woman who had gotten him in my absence. I couldn't help but feel jealousy toward his new wife.

"Auntie I-er-Val? Are you okay? Auntie Val?" I awoke from my thoughts to the sound of Hana's voice.

"Uh…yeah. Sorry…just spacing out there for a minute." I shook my head a little to clear my thoughts.

"You're still in love with him." Hana teased as he ran his burnt fingers underneath the cold-water faucet.

"Oh shush…He's not mine anymore, and I've come to terms with it." I shunned the younger Asakura boy.

"Have you now?" He asked skeptically of me.

I didn't answer, and instead tuned in on Hao and Thorn's conversation just in time to hear Hao say: "What happened to your leg!"

"That's where the bullet got me when it went off…" Thorn tossed an uninterested glance down toward her calf.

His reply was almost an unintelligible whisper. "Your left calf…and it'll leave a scar…" I detected a depressed tone in Hao's voice, and a dazed, glassy look came over his face. However, as soon as the look appeared, it was gone, and Hao went back into his worried father speech. "Anyway, I was so worried!—Hey, where did you get those clothes?"

"Oh, Valerie gave them to me. Since we wear the same size, and she was cleaning out her closet this weekend, she gave me a whole new wardrobe of my very own!"

"What kind of clothes? More like the ones you're wearing?" Hao's eyes skimmed questioningly over his daughter's apparel. He didn't seem to like the thought of his youngest wearing skimpy tank tops and tight-fitting capris.

"Yeah, most of the shirts are tank tops, and there are a lot of capris, but she did give me a few skirts." Thorn excitedly launched into a speech about her new attire.

"What length skirts?" Hao asked dreading the answer.

"Mid to upper-thigh. Is that a problem, Dad?"

"Yes!" I saw the father side of Hao for the first time in a long time, and I had to admit, it was adorable. "You know what perverts boys can be, and the shorter the skirt, the easier it is to look up, believe me."

"Aww, come on Dad; how would you know? Guys don't really do that do they?" Thorn complained, not knowing the extent of Hao's expertise in the subject of pervertedness.

I could hardly stifle my laughing fit. "It seems that your daughter is grossly misinformed about men." I chuckled.

"I'm just now noticing that…" Hao sighed.

"Well, Thorn, I'll tell you, your father's right; you should listen to him. Always wear biking shorts underneath when you wear one of those skirts. I do believe that Ivy has some that you could borrow." I laughed good-naturedly.

"How do you know Ivy?" Hao looked at me suspiciously.

"I'm her." I cut my sentence short without meaning to, getting a few odd glances. "Her _cousin_, I mean. Not _her._ I told you this wedding gown makes me act weird." I smiled sheepishly back at them, trying to make up for my oddity.

"Oh, hey, Dad. Where's Hoshi?" Thorn turned to her father.

"She's at home; I left her a note."

"She's probably worried about getting back those clothes I borrowed from her. We'd better go." Thorn stated sadly, clearly unwilling to leave.

"Hmm…you're right." Hao was also reluctant to go.

"But I don't really want to go home." Thorn complained. "It's really fun here, and everybody is really nice. I'd like to stay."

"Maybe you could come back and visit sometimes, but you can't just stay here forever." My X-husband argued.

"I'm sure that would be fine." I supported Hao's decision. "I'd love to see you from time to time. As long as you don't mind Anna giving you chores to do, you're welcome anytime."

"And the guys and I would love to hang with you, so just know that you're always welcome to join us any time you like." Hana smiled his Yoh-like smile, making her feel like one of the gang.

"Thanks coz, but doesn't Akira hate me?" Thorn raised a questioning eyebrow at Hana.

"Nah…he's always like that." Hana waved off her concern.

"Akira? As in Ren and Pilika's son?" Hao threw a question at me.

"One and the same." I nodded.

"Well, maybe I will come here more often." Thorn smiled brightly at me.

All of the sudden, a mass amount of red smoke started to pour out of the memorial tablet inside Thorn's back pocket; out of the smoke appeared my old guardian ghost, Isabelle. "And I'll come with 'er!" Isa happily chirped. "I'm really gonna miss you, Miss I—er—Valerie."

Hao ushered both my ghost and my daughter out the door, but he himself hung back for a moment in the doorway.

"Do you need something?" I cocked my head to the side and stared into his eyes.

I could have sworn I heard him say 'a wife', but before I could ask him, he said, "Yeah, I hope you don't think I'm being too forward, but I'd really like to see you again sometime."

Again he got me blushing. "I-I…um…I'd…I'll—"

"—She'll see you tomorrow!" My elder sister reappeared behind me, and shoved a business card into Hao's hand. "Come to the Masquerade Ball tomorrow night at the Onsen, and your bound to run into her! I'll make sure of it."

"AN-NA!" I whined. "We've been over this, remember? I specifically told you that I wasn't going! I'd much rather work in my lab where I can accomplish something."

"Nonsense. I said you were going to the party, and that means you're going to the party." The blonde glared icily at me, and I had no choice but to comply with her wishes.

"I suppose I'll be going to the party…" I shrugged awkwardly.

"I suppose I'll be seeing you there." Hao smirked flirtatiously back at me.

"Hey Thorn? You're coming too, right?" Hana glanced at his new favorite cousin.

"Sure." She smiled brightly.

"Oh no you're not." Hao instructed his daughter firmly. "You've had enough excitement for the next few weeks."

"But Dad!"

"Don't give me that. You heard what I said." Hao glanced disapprovingly down at his youngest's arguments.

"Sounds like you'll have to sneak out if you want to go anywhere." I suggested off-handedly.

"Exactly." Hao agreed. "You can ask your sister about sneaking out tactics once we get home." He winked as he smirked at the suggestion. "For now, just say goodbye Thorn."

"Okay. See you all tomorrow!" Thorn waved over her shoulder as she headed for the car.

"See ya!" Hana called to Thorn before running off to leave me alone with my former husband. "Bye Uncle Hao."

"Bye Hana. Anna." Anna nodded, then exited the room, leaving me truly alone with Hao.

He hesitated as he looked at me, unsure if he should just leave, or if he should say something. "Goodbye—Valerie? Wasn't it?"

"Uh…yeah…Valerie…Goodbye Hao." I placed a quick kiss on his cheek before running back into the house. "I really have to change out of this dress before it makes me do something _really_ stupid."

Even after I had closed the door, Hao stood there on the porch, dazed and lightly resting a few fingers on his cheek. "Ivy…No…It can't be. Don't kid yourself Hao."

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Mikau: Okay…what did you think? I personally thought it was really awkward between them, but giving the circumstances of the relationship, I think it turned out to be a pretty good reunion. Thank you all for your support; it really helps me. Also I would like to welcome back my favorite flamer: D: otherwise know as 'Lyserg Must Die'. I missed you and your pointless flames about how I should kill off Lyserg even if he only makes brief appearances in my fics.

Thanks To: DarkPisces33, yo wuz up, Hemila-Rose, hannah, morgan000, glitter galz, Kiva Kyoyama, ShadowYasha, Shamanbabe, ChibiAzn3, D, Andrea Nefisto, Lizzie, KaZuYA MiNeKuRA, HAO-Addictive, and Strawberry.

To Shamanbabe: HEY! Welcome back! I missed you! How was your trip? Did you have fun? Good luck with all your homework and etc. I know what that feels like…

To Andrea Nefisto: Hello! The phrase 'son-of-a-gun' means about the same thing as 'son-of-a-bitch', only it's not cussing. I'd respond more fully to your review, but my parents are yelling for me to go to bed. Man, I miss responding to my reviewers! See ya!

PLEASE REVIEW!


	10. Evil Intervention

Mikau: Hello! I'm happy that I can update so soon after my last update! Yay! Okay, well, I have tryouts for Beauty and the Beast tomorrow, so wish me luck!

**_Disclaimer:_** I don't own Shaman King.

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Evil Intervention

I sat dejectedly on the couch, moping. Iwore a plain pair of gray sweat pants and a tight fitting white T-shirt with some cute saying on it. My hair was done up loosely in two braided pigtails, lying limply against my shoulders. Sure I looked okay—at least I looked more like a girl since I had started wearing Valerie's old clothes—but my simple beauty was nothing compared with my sister sitting next to me.

While _I_ was dressed for a night at home, lounging around the lonely mansion, _Hoshi_ was arrayed in a spectacular midnight blue ball gown glittering with diamonds and other such gems and jewels. The dress showed off quite a lot of skin, but my sister didn't seem to care as usual. Her hair was also in pigtails, but her pigtails, unlike mine, were done up high on her head, flowing down her back, and resting somewhere around her shoulder blades to swing freely in the wind. Strands of diamonds were entwined in her hair to make it glow and shimmer in the moonlight. Her makeup was oddly simple for such a night. She wore only a thin layer of blush and eye shadow, but her overuse of cerulean blue lipstick was enough to offset the bright blue of her eyes, and the darkness of her dress.

When I questioned her about her use—or lack thereof—of makeup, she simply replied: "Oh my gosh, like, Thorn. I'm gonna be wearing a mask, so the amount of makeup doesn't matter as much. The only thing the boys will see will be my eyes and lips. Make those two parts stand out as much as possible, and use neutral colors on the others. God. Don't they teach you anything?"

Hoshi held out her mask for me to look at—more like be jealous of. She held it up to her face and modeled it for me. It was the same dark velvety blue as her dress, but the mask had several different shades of the color blending together to make a beautiful scene if you looked closely. On the mask was an ocean scene during a storm complete with seagulls being blown in the wind. In the midst of studying the mask, Hoshi's bright blue eyes stood out suddenly among all the other blue. It startled me.

I hadn't been expecting to see her eyes. Wait…that didn't come out right…I knew her eyes were there, but then again I didn't… What I mean to say, is that looking at her mask was like looking at a painting. Wouldn't it scare you to find a pair of eyes staring back at you from out a painting? I think the startling effect was the one she had hoped for when originally choosing to wear the mask. It was quite an effective way of making people notice your eyes…hiding them in a field of same color.

In addition to the sea scene, a silvery diamond in the shape of a pentagram, was ingeniously placed in the corner of her left eye. It looked like a beauty mark, and fit in well with the rest of the mask.

My thoughts were interrupted suddenly by my father's voice entering the living room. "How do I look?"

My mouth dropped to the floor at my father's appearance; I knew he was handsome, but now even I had to admit what a hunk Hao was.

Hao wore a black tuxedo, white gloves, a button-up shirt with collar, and instead of his usual huge star disc earrings, he had on plain silver studs; a single red rose was tucked in his chest pocket. The outfit really wasn't much, but it looked really good on him. His crimsony-brown hair hung freely down by his waist; it was newly washed, so it glimmered when hit by light. I next allowed my eyes to wander to his face. His mask wasn't as showy as Hoshi's, but it was still very ornate. It was a plain black mask that only covered the upper half of his face leaving the lips and the lower half of the cheeks exposed. On the black surface, diamonds and rhinestones came together to form a picture of the night's sky complete with constellations. So that his dark eyes wouldn't blend in as much with the ebony of the mask, around the eye slits were small flames, giving the mask a slight red accent.

"OH MY GOD! DAD! You're like such a hottie! If you were a girl then you'd be considered a total babe!" Hoshi voiced my opinion in her own messed up way.

"Uh…Thanks…" Hao smiled nervously at his older daughter. "What do you think Thorn?" He turned towards me, eager for my approval.

I opened and closed my mouth several times before I was actually able to speak. "You're getting awfully dressed up for Valerie don't you think?"

"Who's Valerie!" Hoshi glared at me as if I had been withholding vital information from her.

"She's Ivy's cousin." Hao replied for me. "Now, what do you think Thorn?"

"You look great…Can I please come with you?" I begged.

"No." Hoshi answered before our father could. "Time to go Dad, you have to leave now so that I can sneak out in thirty minutes and still arrive fashionably late to the party." My sister practically shoved Hao out the door.

"All right, all right…" Hao shook his head. "Just be sure you make it home before five o'clock. I'll check in on you then, and if you're not home in bed, I'll be forced to have to pretend to be disappointed in you."

"Yes Dad!" Hoshi smiled brightly, already plotting to sneak in at five, tell Dad that she was home, and be right out of the house again at 5:05.

My father was about to leave when he suddenly remember something. "Oh, and Hoshi, no boys in the house. If you must, go to their houses, but keep them out of mine."

"Yes sir." Hoshi began mentally compensating for the fact that she would have to go from some man's house, back to the mansion at five, and then be out of the house again at 5:05. She did some quick mental math on the time she needed to leave the man's house to get back in time to make her five o'clock check in.

"And Thorn?"

I jumped slightly, not expecting him to have anything to say to me. It's not like I was going to the party. What would he say to me: 'Don't burn the house down while I'm gone.'? "Yes Dad?"

"Be careful." He placed a light kiss on my forehead. "Be home by twelve o'clock, and no boys what-so-ever. Understand me?"

"But…I'm not going to the party! I have no way of getting there, or a dress, or a mask, or—"

"—Hush…you want to go don't you?" I nodded. "Then be careful, be home by twelve, and no boys. Okay?"

"O-kay…" I blinked several times. What did he expect me to do? I had no ride, dress, mask, or anything at all…There was no way for me to get to that Masquerade, and yet he gave a strict set of rules like he expected me to be there. It was as if he would be disappointed if I didn't show.

"Oh, Hoshi! Here are the car keys; don't wreck the convertible, and have fun." With that he was gone.

"How does he expect me to get to the Ball?" I looked desperately at my older twin.

"I have, like, no idea how you're getting there, but I'm taking the convertible." Hoshi smirked evilly at me. "Good luck; I'm going now."

"But it's only been thirty seconds since Dad left!" I argued.

"Thirty minutes, thirty seconds. I never was any good at math." Hoshi gave me one last dirty look before disappearing out the door.

I heaved a gigantic sigh before slumping down into the living room couch yet again. "Now how am I going to get from here to there?"

"Well, the shortest distance between two points is through Hell, so maybe I can be of some assistance?"

I jumped at the new voice in the room, falling head over heals off of the couch onto the floor. Sitting right behind me on the armrest was a man.

He wore a black tank top like jacket with a hood but no sleeves. He left the jacket unzipped and wore no undershirt, so it showed a good deal of his muscular chest. The jacket was trimmed in orange, and had a weird character on the left side over his heart, but I couldn't tell what the strange orange symbol meant. It was long and wispy made out of many different lengths of broken lines. It sort of looked like Native American artwork or writing, but I still couldn't make it out. I gave up trying to decipher the coded message on his shirt and moved on to looking at his pants. They were black with an orange waistband, and on the left side the same odd symbol ran up the length of his entire leg. Still not able to read any further into the markings and getting rather frustrated with trying, I looked up at his bare arms. They were just that—bare—except for the fingertipless gloves spanning from the end of his fingers to somewhere up on his arm between his elbow and his wrist. The gloves were black except for the wrist part. Two orange bands wrapped like shackles around his strong wrists.

He had an evil looking smirk on his face, yet his delicate, chocolate brown eyes held no look of malicious intent. Instead they looked kind, inviting, warm, seducing, and lustful…

I shook my head to clear my thoughts. "Who are you!"

He ran a hand through his short mahogany hair, only an inch or two shorter than my shoulder length hair, and he smirked at me, standing to his full height. "My name is…unimportant. All you need to know is that I am the Devil. I'm here to help you Thorn." He looked as if he could be my father's twin brother.

"How did you know my name? You can't really be the devil…he's not real! That's only a stupid religious superstition!" I pointed an accusing finger at the man now towering over me.

He grabbed my outstretched arm and pulled me to my feet. "Great…she's not superstitious or religious…I'll have to speak to Hao later about bringing his daughters up right…"

"How do you know my dad, and who are you really!" I glared as I pulled away from his tight grasp on me.

"Your father and I are old rivals. I wanted his fiancée, and she turned me down for him. So in a sense, I'm here to help you because I'm still in love with your mother." He smiled wryly at me. I didn't let up my death glare at him. "Don't worry I won't hurt you. I have no reason to. Please, I just want to help…"

"How can you help me Demon?" I stepped back, creating further distance between the two of us.

"I can get you a dress, and a ride to the Masquerade Ball free of charge." That annoying smirk found it's way back to his lips.

I was still suspicious of him. "So you don't want anything from me? Nothing at all?"

"Nothing, I assure you. This time is free of charge; I told you that already. What did you think I meant?" Satan's smile warmed into a friendly one, and he offered a welcoming hand out to me.

"Fine. I'll take your offer, but first, what does that thing on your shirt and pants say?" I agreed, taking the offered hand.

Amusement covered every centimeter of his face. "It says 'Prince of Darkness'. I have another outfit, sort of similar to this one with the character 'Akuma', devil, on the back." With that he teleported us somewhere in a heated inferno.

I held tightly to his body as we landed in an all too familiar room. He didn't seem to mind my infringement of his personal space. "What the Hell was that!"

"Just a simple teleportation. Don't you see your father do those all the time?" He tilted my chin up to look him in the eye.

"Yeah, but I've never done anything like that before…" I let go of him and glanced around the room. "Why did you bring me here? This room is off limits; we're not supposed to be here. That's why it's called the Abandoned room. It's supposed to be ABANDONED! My father would be really upset if he knew that the Devil had been in here!"

"Oh chill…It'll be fine…He just doesn't want anybody in here because it reminds him of _her._" The demon smirked happily at me, making his way over to my mother's old closet. He slid it open and browsed through it, looking for something only he seemed to know about. With one quick jerking motion and an 'Aha!' he pulled out a stunning forest green dress laced in small emeralds and diamonds.

He tossed the dress at me, and I caught it with accuracy. Satan snapped his fingers and in an instant the dress was on me, my hair was done up in banana curls, and a smooth layer of emerald lipstick was applied to my pale pink lips.

"What do you think?" He circled me like a hawk, inspecting his handy -work.

"I look…wow…but I need a mask." I couldn't find a word for my beauty, but I tried not to think too highly of myself, for I knew that this would only last one night.

The demon pulled out a velvety green mask from behind his back and placed it gracefully on my face. "Don't worry, I have everything covered." The strange man winked slyly.

I stood starring in the mirror at a reflection that couldn't possibly have been mine. She was too beautiful. The mask was the perfect touch to my silky green dress. Like my sister's mask, it had a faint background scene on it made out of soft silk and light velvet, only my scene was of a forest covered in thorns and ivy. It was truly beautiful with little birds flying high in the air above the forest. In the corners of my eyes, there were small emeralds accenting the mask in the shape of a minuscule rose.

"Thank you…it's wonderful…" I could hardly contain my smile.

"Oh, wait, before we leave for the Ball, here take this…" He picked up a key off of my mother's vanity and handed it to me. It was a small key, like one that you might use to open a diary with, and it had a small heart on its handle.

"What is it to?" I raised an eyebrow at him.

"Ask Valerie. She knows, and if she says she doesn't, she's lying. But for now, let's put this little key in your room and then get you to the Masquerade."

There was no time to argue before he grabbed me and we disappeared together in a cloud of flames. He dropped me off in front of Funbari Onsen, and gave me a quick wink before leaving again in another burst of fire. "Good luck Thorn. Have fun."

I took a deep breath before heading into the party. 'Here goes nothing…'

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Mikau: Well that was fun. Okay, I saw the last episode of Shaman King on Saturday, and I don't really like how 4KIDS ended it, so I watched the Portugese version. It was much better. I only wish that I could get the English translation of the original Japanese episodes scripts for the last three episodes…sigh…oh well…I have found English translations for the manga chapters 235 to the end, and I even found raw manga scans 233 to the end, so all I'm missing is chapters 154 to 234 in scans, and some odd number of translations. If anyone could tell me where to find any of those scans (even if they're not in English) please tell me.

Thanks To: Kiva Kyoyama, y0ur-w0rst-nightmARee, morgan000, HAO-Addictive, glitter galz, Hemila-Rose, yo wuz up, Danny, Andrea Nefisto, ChibiAzn3, and DarkPisces33.

To DarkPisces33: Actually, I really don't think it's strange at all that Hao and 'Valerie' kissed when they first met. Ivy knew it was Hao, and she hadn't seen him in so long, and they _were_ married, so I think it's natural for her to kiss him. As for Hao: he doesn't know that Valerie is really Ivy, but still he's attracted to her because he's still so in love with Ivy. In other words, he isn't consciously aware of the fact that it's Ivy, but his subconscious does. Moving on, about Shaman King, are you talking about them putting it back on in the US? Because if so, it's already over with; episode number 64: Epilogue was the last episode. If you missed the last couple episodes, I can tell you where to download them for free.

But, you know I did hear a rumor about a SK movie coming out in the US sometime toward the end of September or the middle of November, or sometime in October…anyway, before Christmas. It's just a rumor, but I'd really like it if it were true. It's a USA only movie made by 4KIDS and Funimation. Like I said, it's only a rumor, but it would be so cool to have it be true.

PLEASE REVIEW!


	11. Masquerade Ball

Mikau: Hello everyone! Sorry for the slow update yet again…sigh things have gotten really busy…Thank you all for being so supportive and understanding. For those who are curious: I don't know if I made call back for the musical yet. They posted who made the main characters, but they haven't posted ensemble yet. I'll find out Tuesday morning.

**_Disclaimer:_** I don't own Shaman King.

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Masquerade Ball

"AN-NA! Anna, I don't want to do this! Please don't make me go! Please; I'll do anything you say, just don't make me go to this stupid Masquerade Ball!" I whined at my sister as she sat behind me on my vanity's bench trying to make my tangled and unruly hair presentable.

"So now my Masquerade is stupid, is it?" She yanked the brush hard, and pulled out several strands of silvery hair.

"OUCH! Hey! That hurt!"

"Oh, shush…your body isn't suppose to be able to feel pain." I saw her through the reflection in the mirror rolling her ebony eyes at my stupidity.

"Well…it does…" I sighed and just let her have her way with my long sliver locks. "Why did you have to invite him?"

"Who? Ivy, you can't just go off talking about random topics all of the sudden." I lowered my eyes to look at her icy blue dress. She knew exactly of whom I spoke, but she tortured me by making me say his name.

"You know who…" I insisted, my blue eyes lingering on the ornate mask resting upon her face. It was a full-face mask, and it looked absolutely gorgeous on Anna. The middle and lower halves of the mask were a metallic ivory color, but the top was a glittery and sparkly ice blue. The lips of the mask where the same blue as her dress, and her eyes were framed in a lighter shade of the blue color. Diamonds decorated the bottom corners of her eyes, and all along the top following the eyebrow line. On top of the mask, long spikes, imitating a crown, were decorated with ice crystals and snowflakes. She truly looked the part of her age-old nickname: The Ice Queen. There was no way I could describe with words the beauty and majesty of the mask my twin wore.

"Ivy, you know I had to invite Hao…It's for your own good. You can't run from him any longer. You love him, he loves you, and I keep telling you that he won't care that you don't have a body of your own…he loves _you_, not your body…" Anna gently rubbed the spot where she had pulled out my hair. "I wish you could understand that imouto…"

"Anna…" I paused, taking a deep breath. "I know…I just…I've been gone so long, and he doesn't seem to recognize me…I'm so nervous around him. I'm afraid he'll be mad at me for lying to him. I just…Never mind. It's not important."

"I think it's important." A new voice interjected from the doorway.

I turned to find Yoh smiling happily at the two of us.

"Hello Honey, how was your trip to France?" Anna didn't even bother to look up at him.

"Hey Yoh." I winked, happy to be distracted.

"Hold still Ivy." Anna instructed firmly, jerking my head back to face the front.

"Yes ma'am." I sighed, holding my head perfectly still for my big sister.

"My trip was fine Anna." Yoh placed a quick butterfly kiss on Anna's lips before turning toward me and kissing my cheek. "What's up with the new look Ivy?"

"Well…I'm not exactly sure what chemicals I mixed, but they blew up and this is the result. I don't think it looks too bad, but…hmm…I just want my old look back." I subconsciously had moved my head again to look at Yoh, and Anna had to jerk my head back into place so that she could style my hair.

"Hmm…I think it looks sexy on you." Yoh sat down on the stool next to my vanity.

Anna kicked the leg of the stool, making it tip over, sending Yoh to the floor. "Hao seems to think so too. He couldn't keep his hands off of her the other day when he came to pick up Thorn."

"Gomen nasai, Anna-koi! I didn't mean it that way." Yoh apologized to his wife and set the stool back in an upright position at the same time.

"You're forgiven."

Yoh's bright smile reappeared on his lips. "Arigatou…uh, Ivy?"

"Hmm?" I was careful not to move my head; instead I made eye contact with him in the mirror.

"I heard about what happened the other day…with Hao and Thorn?" He hesitated to go further into the subject in case it would upset me somehow.

"Go on." I replied flatly, sounding more like Anna than myself.

"Well…good luck pulling this whole Valerie thing off. Hao really misses you; he tells me so all of the time." Yoh always had a knack for making me feel better on an off day. He handed me a mask wrapped in tissue paper.

I nodded my thanks, and he left putting on his own mask; it was covered with crisp green leaves and sakura blossoms. It was simple, yet exquisite in its own way…sort of like its wearer.

"Done." Anna smiled in satisfaction at her job well done of my hair. Soft, moonbeam-colored curls rolled down my shoulders and swung around my waist seemingly of their own accord. Normally I just let my hair do whatever it wanted, and I had forgotten how good it looked when I actually combed it. She had curled it and parted it on the side, separating my bangs so that some hung down in my face, framing it perfectly.

"Hao won't be able to take his eyes off of you." Anna cooed, sounding as if _she _was the one who looked like an angel. I simply nodded, for she would have killed me if I completely ignored her. "You don't seem too happy…Why?" It wasn't really a question, but she still insisted on phrasing it like one. She wasn't asking for an answer; she was demanding one.

I played the obedient little sister and told her what she wanted to hear: "Yesterday my heart started beating."

"What!" I think for the first time in a long time, I had shocked Anna. "Ivy, that's impossible…that body is dead—a corpse—a kyonshi! Its heart isn't capable of beating."

"I know that." I looked up at her out of the corner of my eye. "But that doesn't change the fact that it did…when he kissed me back…my heart felt like it was going to burst out of my chest. I don't know what he did to me, but I could feel a heartbeat. It stopped when he pulled away though…I don't know what happened, but there's just something about the way he looks at me that makes me feel truly alive again. I've just felt so dead all this time I've been away from him, my kids, and his followers—my friends. I suppose that seeing him again and being so close to him…It's doing something to me…"

She looked at me as if I was insane. I shook the dreamy look from my face and centered my eyes on the mask in my lap.

"Maybe you're right…you do seem different. You definitely have been more animated since yesterday. Who am I to question the Shaman King's power?" She looked distastefully down at me as I sat staring at the mask, still wrapped in tissue paper. "Are you going to just stare at it, or are you going to put it on and come to the party?"

"Must I? I would much rather be in my lab—"

"—Blowing things up while there are hundreds of people present? I think not. Be downstairs in three minutes or I will tell Hao who 'Valerie' really is." My beloved big sister quickly dashed all my hopes of getting out of going to this pointless affair. She exited with a dignified and graceful air, sliding her mask down over her face and closing the door behind her. "Three minutes, Ivy!"

I let out a defeated sigh and put on the mask, then stood and inspected myself in the mirror. I hardly recognized the girl looking back. Sure she was gorgeous—I was use to that, but I couldn't help but hate her. So this was Valerie…I couldn't understand what the heck he saw in her. Was she prettier than I was? Did he like me better this way? "Dirty tramp!" I threw a sock at the mirror. "How dare you steal my husband from me!" Another sock bounced off of the cold, flat surface of the looking glass.

The white-haired witch didn't even flinch at my assault. I stopped attacking my reflection and instead, opted to stare at it. In the mirror stood a beautiful creature with silvery locks and stormy eyes. She wore a bright red shade of lipstick matching the color of her dress. The dress was slit up to her thigh, and the neckline plunged low. A string of fiery rubies surrounded her neck and her waist like a belt. A strip was cut out of the gown right around her bellybutton to show a little of her flat stomach. If this dress was enough to drive Yoh crazy (he had been the one who picked it out while in Paris), then what effect would it have on Hao? I pushed the thoughts aside, knowing perfectly well what my perverted husband would think.

"You slut…" I looked away, not wanting to gaze at her anymore, but something made me turn around and look again. The mask. It was made of red velvet with rubies framing the border. It looked as if the mask were on fire because of the scene printed on it. Flames: a wild fire burning away at the mask. As if this were not enough, streaming down from the mask's eyes were diamonds. They looked like glimmering tears when light touched them, and it looked as if I was really crying. It was beautiful.

"Valerie!" Anna bellowed from down the stairs. She called me by my alias, so that meant that guests had started to arrive. I adjusted my hair and dress, and journeyed down the steps to the party.

"Coming!"

Anna escorted me around, introducing me to all her friends as 'Valerie Kyôyama' her cousin. My sister made sure that I was never without a dancing partner. Boys and men all stood in line, pushing and shoving to dance with me. I think Anna had arranged this as a method of stalling for time, making sure I didn't leave until Hao arrived.

"May I have this dance Miss?" One gentleman bowed and offered me his white-gloved hand. I nodded my concession and let him lead me out onto the dance floor. I had pretty much stopped paying attention to my dance partners by now, and just let them do what they wanted; I followed their lead blindly, and didn't put up much resistance. I was too bored to care anymore. The music was slow, the lights were low, and he held me close in his arms. I was too sidetracked to notice the intimate way he was holding me. "You're looking exquisite tonight Ivy."

"What!" I jumped at his use of my real name.

"Don't you recognize me, Darling? It's your Lucifer-koi." I took a good look at the man I was dancing with: He wore a white tuxedo complete with top hat and cape. His undershirt was blue, and he had a bright red tie. He looked like the Kaitou Kid from "Magic Kaito" and "Detective Conan". In place of a mask, a shiny monocle adorned his right eye. His eyes were a way too familiar chocolate brown, and his long mahogany hair was pulled up in a ponytail.

"What the hell are you doing here!" I hissed, glowering at him.

He only pulled me closer and twirled a few strands of my hair around his fingers. "I planned on finally doing you."

"Bastard. The only time that will happen is in your dreams." I don't know why, but I didn't pull away from him. I suppose I had gotten used to his perverted attempts to hit on me, and I no longer cared.

"Ivy, you're so stingy. Actually the real reason I'm here is to hit on your daughter Thorn. I brought her here, and am planning to get in good with her here at the party."

I didn't bother taking his threat seriously.

"What's the matter? You're not as fiery as you usually are…You haven't tried to hit me yet…Is something wrong? You're not sick, are you? Or maybe you're drunk?" Lucifer's hand slid up and down my thigh, trying to get me to slap him, or at least react by becoming a little mad.

"Lucifer?" I ignored his shallow attempt to make me angry.

"Hmm?"

"Do you think I look prettier this way?" It was an honest question; I needed to know his opinion. I couldn't ask Yoh, since he was such a nice guy, and wouldn't dare answer truthfully, afraid of angering me. Lucifer would give an honest opinion. The Devil didn't care who he offended.

"Ivy…why are you asking me this? You know I don't care what you look like. It's how you act, and right now, you should either be swooning over me, or clobbering me for touching you." Lucifer's hand brushed the inside of my thigh.

Instead of letting him get away with it like the other times, I grabbed his wrist and twisted it. "I'm asking because I need to know what Hao would think."

"God you're beautiful when you're inflicting pain on others…" A dazed smile won over the demon's face.

I smacked the sappy grin away and rephrased my question. "Who do you think Hao would like more: Valerie or Ivy?"

Gingerly rubbing his cheek, Lucifer answered. "Look Ivy, Hao, like me, doesn't care what you look like. We love Ivy because she is Ivy. The whole reason Hao is falling so fast for Valerie is because of how much she reminds him of Ivy. Now that that's settled…which way is your bedroom?"

I slapped him so hard that he fell over and conked his head on the hard, wooden floor. "Ouch…" He softly moaned, but then as he looked up at me, his nose started bleeding. He smirked lustily up at me, and seemed pretty content to stay on the floor.

'What can he be so pleased abo—OOOHHH! My stupid skimpy dress!' "Lucifer, if you don't get up here in three seconds I will murder you in cold blood in front of all these people."

"Yes m'lady." He reluctantly returned to a standing position. "So…Ivy…red underwear?" That earned him a kick in the groin. "OWWWWWWW! Oh GOD Ivy, I was just kidding with you!"

"Then I'd advise against kidding that way with me again." I smirked inwardly to see him in pain.

"Well, the song is ending, and I think it's some other lucky guy's turn to dance with you…Poor bastard. I suppose I'll be leaving." The devil pretended to not care. "But one last thing before I go…"

"What do you want Lu—" I didn't get to finish as he took me in his arms with my body almost parallel to the floor and kissed me heatedly.

When he was finished, he stood me back upright, and walked off with naught but a perverted smirk.

"Goodbye and good riddance." I muttered, but secretly smiled once his back was turned toward me. After Lucifer, Anna made me dance non-stop with ten or twelve guys.

About half an hour into the Ball I spotted him. My X-husband was sitting on the sidelines, watching me dance with random men.

His eyes didn't release me from their sight as I waltzed around the room. After him just sitting there, watching me dance with the others for ten solid minutes, and him not asking for a dance for himself, I got sick of waiting. I broke away from one man in the middle of a song, quickly excusing myself, and casually sat down in the seat next to Hao.

He kept staring at me out of the corner of his eye, a lustful smirk on his face.

"You know, I bet your wife wouldn't like it if she knew you were looking at me like that." I smiled deviously, not looking him in the eye.

"And I'd wager that your fiancée wouldn't like you talking to me." He turned to face me, smirk still in place.

"I'm not engaged." I looked curiously at him, dropping my devious grin.

"And I'm not married." He smiled his million-dollar smile. "Just curious, but if you're not getting married, then why were you wearing a wedding gown the other day when I first met you?"

My mouth dropped: he wasn't married. I was busy plotting different ways to punish Lucifer, so I almost didn't hear his question. "Oh, I was just trying the dress on for my sist—er—I mean cousin, Anna. She has this obsession with making wedding gowns, and she uses me to model them. I was married once before, but it didn't last long…" I paused, thinking of how awkward this was, talking about our marriage as if I had been married to someone else. "What about you?"

"I was married before too…just once, and like yours, it just didn't work. Your cousin Ivy…she…Oh God I loved her…" Hao looked away from me in a desperate attempt to hide the tears that were threatening his eyes.

I rested a supportive hand on his thigh, trying to comfort him, but I drew back when I realized how cold my hand must have been. He caught the hand and held it to his face, smirking yet again.

"I'm sorry—I—" I started.

"—Your hand is so cold…" He pressed my left palm to his cheek, and rubbed it furiously with his own hand. "What do you do, soak them in ice water?"

"No…they're always that way…my hands—my whole body—I'm always cold…" I tried to move away from him, feeling like he was close to discovering my secret, but he wouldn't let go. I felt so self-conscious around him, and he wasn't making it any easier.

"Well, I'd expect that you'd be cold in a skimpy little dress like that…maybe I can be of some assistance?" Hao wrapped his arms around me so I was encircled in his welcome embrace. "A little body heat should do you some good."

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see a lot of men in the room glaring at Hao as he hit on me shamelessly. I could only smile to try to hide my blush. "You're probably right, my body temperature feels like it's going through the roof; my entire body's on fire." I leaned in close to him, the tips of our noses brushing gently against each other.

"So is mine…" Hao whispered huskily into my ear before taking control of my lips. When he finally let go of me, he took a deep breath and asked, "So if you're not married, then why are you wearing that ring on your left finger?"

His eyes rested on the plain gold band on my left ring finger. "I work with a lot of chemicals, so if I wore my real wedding ring, it would get horribly messed up, so I just wear this one in its stead. I still love my husband, so I don't want to take it off. I see that you too are wearing a wedding band. What's your reason?"

"Same as yours: I'm still hopelessly in love with Ivy, so I can't bring myself to take the ring off." He sighed. "So, are you involved with anyone?"

"Nope." I answered truthfully; I hadn't been on a quote, unquote date since I left him.

"Don't lie. Who are all those guys glaring at me for talking to you?" Hao smirked.

I let out an embarrassed chuckle, and answered again. "I'm serious, I'm not involved with anyone. I just met most of those guys today." This seemed to appease him.

"Great. Well, since you're unattached, as am I, I won't feel any guilt when I ask you to dance with me…Will you?" His expectant gaze fell upon me, and I could do naught but give in to his request.

"I'd love to." And we danced…and talked…and drank a little more than we should have. By around two o'clock in the morning, the party was still going, but we were both hopelessly drunk. I think I was a little more intoxicated than he was though. A slow song started up, and I was practically hanging on Hao just to stand up straight.

"You seem a little tipsy there Val." He commented, not minding one bit how closely pressed against him I was.

"It's your fault that I'm drunk." I accused, resting my head on his shoulder, and talking almost into his neck.

"How do ya figure?" Hao laughed evilly at my wasted state.

"If it hadn't been for you, Anna wouldn't have made me come to this stupid party." I pushed him off of me playfully, but almost fell over with the effort of it.

He caught me, and kissed me quickly, grinning like a madman the whole time. "What do you mean?"

"Haven't you noticed Anna's trying to set us up?"

"I have, and I think she's doing a good job of it. You can't keep your hands off of me…but maybe that's just because I'm naturally irresistible to women." Hao bit softly at my ear, teasing me.

"Yeah right. You're the one who's all over me! You've been trying to get me in bed with you all evening!" I batted him away playfully.

"True…" Suddenly his catty grin changed into a serious expression. "So what do you say? Do you want to have--?"

"—Stop it Hao." I pushed away and turned my back toward him. He hadn't changed one bit in the past sixteen years.

"Sorry—was I being too forward again? Or don't you want to?" He flipped one of my curly locks half playfully, half sincere.

"It's not a matter of if I want to or not…I just can't. Not yet…" Things were moving way too fast between us. I had come to the party to see him again, and now here he was talking about having a relationship. I couldn't do it. Being so close to him, yet so far away… I'd die of depression. I couldn't allow myself to get involved with Hao and neglect my research. I was doing it for him after all…to get back to him…I had to get away from him. It was so tempting to just go along with him, but it would have been against my better judgment. It was best to just lay low and not get too involved with him just yet. Not until I had a real body and could be with him again as Ivy.

I broke away and turned my back to him. "You know it's getting pretty late, so you should probably go home…your daughters need you." I stumbled my way to my bedroom.

Footsteps followed only a few paces behind me. I opened the door to my room and stepped inside. The footsteps waited in the doorway for me to invite them in. "Yes Hao?"

"I'm too drunk to drive home safely." He made up an excuse.

I was about to suggest that he just teleport home, but then a thought occurred to me. "Well…we can't have you dying in a car accident can we? I suppose it would be okay for us to share a bed…as long as you don't try anything."

"But of course…" Hao slipped off his shoes, shirt, and jacket, climbing into my bed.

I rolled my eyes at the hopeless ladies man and took my spot next to him. "Goodnight Hao."

He lay his head on my chest and drifted off into a peaceful sleep in a matter of seconds, but before dozing off, he whispered: "Goodnight Ivy…"

I held him tight to my body, his head right over my unbeating heart. I cried myself to sleep knowing how close he was, and yet despite the lack of distance between us, I couldn't have him. 'Damn this useless body…I want to be Ivy for him again…Two days, and I'm already sick of Valerie.'

"Goodnight Hao…I promise to come back to you as soon as I can." 'As soon as I can make a body that works.'

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Mikau: I really don't like this chapter. I thought it would turn out really well since I spent so much time on it and worked so hard, but the end result just isn't what I hoped for. I hope you all like it more than I do…sigh…Oh well. I'm sure it's fine and I'm just being paranoid as usual. I hope this is the case anyway. I would hate to have taken so long and have the chapter be a disappointment…

Thanks To: animeren, glitter galz, KaZuYa MiNeKuRa, Hemila-Rose, Kiva Kyoyama, morgan000, Firebane5, MaiValentinefan, y0ur-w0rst-nightmARee, yo wuz up, Shamanbabe, Danny, ChibiAzn3, Andrea Nefisto, Kara, and Strawberry.

Kara: Hi! Responding to your question about Lucifer and the Great Spirits. I think the Great Spirits can look like whatever they want to. Since they are a congregation of spirits they should be able to take on whatever form they wish.

http // www dot getitfido dot com / pafiledb dot php ? action category &id 58 is where you can download SK episodes for free. Also, you can download all the episodes in Portugese here: http // www dot shamank dot com / principal dot php ?page episodios and the episode scripts are here in English: http // www dot geocities dot com / princessgarnet 117 / scripts dot html


	12. Devil’s Kiss

Mikau: Hello! So sorry for the delay in updating. I think I'm coming down with something…Oh well. Just a warning, there is some limey making out stuff in this chapter, so if you don't like lime stuff, I've put in convenient little warnings to tell you where to stop reading and then where to start again. My cousin Anna (the lemon fiend) said that I should make the part between Lucifer and Thorn into a lemon. After yelling 'Ewewewewe gross!' and throwing things at her, Anna backed off of the lemon idea. Unfortunately, she somehow convinced me to let her help me write a limish thing, so any of you who read the limey part and somehow it doesn't sound like something I would write, it's all my cousin's fault for being obsessed with lemons.

**_Disclaimer:_** I don't own Shaman King.

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Devil's Kiss

I took a deep breath and opened the door. With a quick nod of pleasantries to the bouncer I was in. I had until two o'clock in the morning to have fun.

At first, it was hard to walk in the emerald dress, but after a few minutes of accidentally tripping, I got use to it, and didn't have such a hard time maneuvering. Several boys asked me to dance, but not knowing how to, I politely declined. I smiled at and greeted those who smiled at and greeted me. Many girls looked jealously at me, but I chose to forgive them; they didn't know that I didn't always look that beautiful. I also tried to ignore some of the cat calls I got from a few groups of teenage boys; they didn't know that I could beat them up with both my hands and legs bound.

"Thorn!" A semi-familiar voice called out from the crowd to me. "Thorn!"

I looked to see a handsome boy with shoulder-length dirty blonde hair, and ebony black eyes. He wore plain black dress pants, and a normal collared dress shirt, but he left the shirt unbuttoned to show his trim and well-muscled body. The boy also wore a beautifully decorated mask. The right half was a sun, brightly painted in warm oranges, sunny yellows, and spicy reds. The left half was shaped like a moon, painted in all different shades of blue and silver. Bordering the outer edge of the mask was a band of glowing yellow and silver stars.

"Hana?" I blinked twice and reminded myself that, regretfully, he was my cousin.

He finally reached me, and greeted me by tilting his head to the side slightly and holding up his right hand. "Yo! Glad you could make it."

"Hey Hana." I hugged him lightly, and to my surprise, he hugged back.

"Hey pretty lady!" A girl in an olive gown walked right up and shamelessly hit on me. Her dress was extremely tight fitting, and it clung to her like it was her skin, hugging her lines and curves. Her mask sort of scared me. It was the same olive color as her dress, but the mask looked like it was made from dragon skin or something. It was all scaly, and on top, a horde of snakes adorned her head like a crown. She was dressed as Medusa. Thank goodness they were fake snakes, or else I would have fainted. The girl herself had ice blue hair and weird gray eyes.

"Hello Ivory…" I greeted nervously. I didn't particularly feel comfortable with her hitting on me.

"Hello Hana-koi!" Ivory draped herself on Hana's shoulders.

"You look gorgeous tonight Ivory." Hana smiled good-naturedly, but tried to free himself from her amorous grasp just the same.

"Thank you! Actually I'm quite jealous of Makoto…he's so lucky that he's short! He gets to look up everybody's dresses, and no one can be mad at him because he can't help it!" Ivory pouted, still clinging to my cousin.

"Ivory, you know I don't look up girls' skirts! I'm not a pervert like you." I looked down and spotted a short, sandy blonde-haired boy with bright green eyes. He wore a tuxedo like everyone else, but his mask made him stick out in the crowd: a white cat face decorated in streaks and splotches of gold and teal. The gold outlining around the eye sockets really made his eyes stand out.

"Well if it isn't Makoto Oyamada. How _are_ you tonight dearest midget?" The Ainu girl teased.

"That's not funny Usui." The shrimpy teen addressed his friend sternly, but quickly changed tones of voice when greeting my cousin and me. "Hello Hana-kun! Good evening Miss Thorn." Makoto bowed like a gentleman to me.

"Nice seeing you again Makoto." I smiled pleasantly down at him, hoping that what he said about not looking up girls' skirts was true. Though I seriously doubted it was in his character to actually do such a thing. He seemed like such a shy and kind boy.

"Yo Makoto. Hey, where are your glasses?" Hana asked, still trying to free himself from Ivory; accidentally touching her chest, he drew his hand back and cringed.

"I'm wearing contacts." He replied simply. "It would be hard to wear glasses and a mask at the same time…Hey, where's Akira? He didn't chicken out of coming did he?"

"I have no idea where my cousin is…He said he was coming. He also said that no one would be able to recognize him." Ivory let go of Hana for a second to look around the crowded room. So many different masks hid the identities of almost everyone. "I don't see him…But OH MY GOD HANA! Your aunt looks sooooo hott! I just love her silver hair!"

"Valerie is here?" I asked enthusiastically. I was eager to speak again with that interesting woman.

"Yeah, she looks pretty busy though…my mom is determined to set her up with some guy. Anna never gives up once she sets her mind to something." Hana observed.

"And who is that sexy devil she's dancing with!" Ivory totally forgot her original plan to spot Akira in the crowd, and opted to ogle at the dancing pair.

"You know, that could be Hao…but it could also be Lucifer…I can't tell from way over here…" Makoto spoke up, trying to see over everyone else's heads, but having little success.

"Oh well…it doesn't matter…Wait. Where's my cousin?" The blue-haired Ainu re-established her Akira search.

While Ivory was still distracted with looking for her cousin and Makoto was trying to get a good look at Valerie's dancing partner, Hana lowered his voice to whisper in my ear. "So…Uh…Thorn…Do you want to dance?"

"I couldn't possibly…" I blushed, looking away from him. "I have no idea how to dance…"

A cute smirk adorned his face as Hana pulled me out onto the dance floor against my will. "Oh, come on! It's the boy that leads, so all you have to do is follow me and make sure I don't step on your feet."

"Ha-na! I swear, I have two right feet! I can't dance! I—" He placed a hand over my mouth, cutting me off.

"It's a slow song, so just put your arms around my neck, and follow my lead." Hana instructed firmly.

I did as he said without questioning him further, and to my surprise, I actually did well. We didn't step on each other's feet or anything.

"See…you're doing fine. That wasn't so bad, was it?" my cousin smiled brightly as usually.

"You're right…it isn't as horrible as I thought." I happily admitted. "I was really nervous at first, but now I think I feel better. Thank you for showing me how."

"No problem…I'm glad I could be of help to you…So, how did you convince your dad to let you come? He seemed pretty set on not letting you out of the house this weekend."

I had to think before I said anything. It would seem really strange if I told him that the devil had appeared out of nowhere, gave me a mask and dress, and then teleported me to the dance. "Well…my dad is infamous for changing his mind. I guess he felt a little guilty for never letting me do anything, so he let me go to this party."

"Well, I'm glad you came. Ivy was looking forward to seeing you too." My cousin stated off-handedly.

"Ivy!" My eyes turned to slits, and my body temperature skyrocketed at the mention of my mother.

"Uh…Sorry….I meant Valerie! I accidentally get names mixed up all the time. Really sorry about that Thorn." His cute little smile was contagious, and soon I forgot about his little slip.

"Excuse me, but may I cut in on this dance?" A taller gentleman in a dark purple suit tapped Hana on the shoulder. He was wearing an orange, black, gold, and red glittery mask. It was a lot less ornate than the rest of the masks at the party, but it still had a fancy flare. His purple suit matched his smoothed down hair perfectly. Somehow, his snowy blue eyes seemed familiar.

"Do I know you?" Hana carefully scrutinized the man, taking in every detail suspiciously.

"No. My name is Dao Lian, and I do not remember us meeting before. Now, may I please dance with this enchanting young lady?" The young stranger seemed to be getting impatient.

"If she agrees." Hana looked at me out of the corner of his eye, waiting for my approval. He didn't look very happy about our dance being cut short.

"I can always dance with you again later Hana." I smiled reassuringly at my cousin as my new dancing partner took me by my hand and lead me away from Hana.

As soon as I was gone, Ivory walked up to my cousin and they started dancing. I couldn't help but think what an opportunist she was.

"So…Lian? Was it? Why are you here?" I attempted to make small talk.

"My friends were all on my case to come, so I did. Now that I'm here I figure I might as well dance with pretty girls." He shrugged, blushing some.

"Why aren't you hanging with your friends?" I asked, totally missing the fact that he had called me pretty.

He shrugged again, forgiving me for missing his compliment. "I'm sort of mad at them…my one friend—well she's my cousin actually—but, she was teasing me the other day about my inability to attract a girl. Yesterday we had a bet: we were in this club, and she told me to pick a girl. I picked this pretty looking blonde with pretty tight fitting clothes and stuff, and then my cousin said that I probably couldn't get the girl to go out with me. I asked the blonde, and she flat out refused me. Then my coz went up to her and got the girl to go out on a date. As if that weren't enough, my best friend challenged me to a fight "so he could practice a new trick his aunt taught him" and he kicked my ass. Then this other guy I hang with, my best friend's best friend, I told him that I had recently failed a history test, and then he offered to tutor me. He assigns extra homework, and doesn't give me any slack. They've all been real jerks to me this week."

"That sounds awful." I couldn't help but be sympathetic towards the boy. The song suddenly came to an end, and it was time for us to part company. "Uh…hey, do you want to dance again?" I didn't want to say goodbye to him yet. He seemed like such an interesting person, and it looked like he didn't have anyone to talk to. I might as well stay and get to know him.

A slow smile took over his lips. "I'd love to dance with you." The next song started up; this one was a little faster than the previous ones. "So, what are you doing here?"

"Me? Oh…I don't know…My dad and sister came, and I didn't want to be left home alone, so I somehow magically ended up here." I paused; somehow it didn't feel right lying to him even if the truth sounded weird. "Actually, my dad doesn't let me out much, so I had to sneak out. It's pretty funny really, he let's my sister do whatever she wants, but I can't do anything. I don't know, maybe it's just sad and not really funny at all…"

"Sorry…I'd hate to be boxed up all the time. I can't imagine how horrible it is to be grounded 24-7." Lian grinned apologetically at me, and I felt my heart skip a beat at his beautiful smile

"It's not so bad." I blushed. "I've recently made some new friends, and all except for one, they all seem to accept me. I can still have fun despite that I'm pretty much kept under lock and key."

"But I bet you've never been on a date." He challenged.

I clinched my teeth and grudgingly admitted, "Well…no…but—"

"But nothing. I bet you haven't even had a first kiss either!" Now he seemed to be laughing at me. It wasn't a cruel laugh; he seemed to be teasing me. Sort of how Valerie spoke to me.

My face became bright red at his accusation. Of course it was true that I had never been kissed before, but I wouldn't let this man know that. "Of course I've had my first kiss! I've kissed plenty of boys." I lied.

"Really? Then what's one more?" He held me close in his arms and kissed me. It was only a brief kiss with no tongue involved at all, but it was my first one…

"You lied…you never had been kissed before had you?" He broke away and asked me looking deep into my dark eyes.

"I was lying, but you didn't have to go and steal my first real kiss for it! Jerk…" I pouted, refusing to look him in the eye.

"You're really pretty when you're upset." He sighed, letting go of me. "Goodbye Miss, and thanks for the dance. Sorry to bother you." He turned from me and started to walk away.

"Wait!" I grabbed at his jacket sleeve.

"Yes? I'm sorry, can I do something for you?" He looked longingly back at me.

"Um…yes." I answered hesitantly. "Here." I gave him a piece of paper with my email address on it. "I'd like to talk to you again sometime. I really…l-like…you. My name is…" I paused, somehow feeling that I couldn't give him my real name for some strange reason. "Hoshi. Hoshi Asakura."

He gave an honest smile as he gave me a piece of paper in return. "I'd like that. I hope to meet you again some day Hoshi." He leaned in and placed another chaste kiss upon my lips. He winked and then vanished into the crowd of people. I looked down at the piece of paper and smiled: Chineseshadowboy33 at SK dot com.

"THORN!" A female voice shrieked, causing me to almost drop the email address. I turned to see my sister gaping at me. "Thorn? Is that you!"

"Hey, Hosh. What's up? You look like you've seen a ghost." I giggled at my sister's startled appearance.

"You…Oh my, like, GOD! You look like a girl in that dress! Like, how did _you_ get here!" Hoshi didn't look happy to see me there looking simply exquisite in our mother's ball gown.

"Thanks sis. Our cousin invited me. You know, Hana? He's the one over there in the sun and moon mask dancing with Medusa. As for how I got here, 'querer es poder'; where there's a will, there's a way." I smiled cheekily at my sister. Now was my chance to get her back for all the horrible things she did to me. It was fun to torture my sister.

"Like, NO FAIR! You, like, can't possibly be here! Like, oh my God. Well, have, like, fun." She stormed off, followed by a group of horny teenage boys.

"Hmph." I sniffed indignantly. She was always such a pain. I was sick of my sister always being so snobbish. I sighed and headed over to the punch table. On the way, I passed my father dancing with Valerie. They were flirting heavily with each other, both obviously drunk. I saw my Aunt Anna smiling happily at the couple. She seemed genuinely pleased to see Hao and Val getting together on their own.

I picked up a cup of strawberry punch and was about to drink when someone tapped me on the shoulder. "Uh, Miss?"

"Ahh!" I jumped, spilling punch all over the person behind me. Luckily I didn't get any punch on myself or it would have stained my mother's dress. I turned to see the man I had spilt the punch on. "I am so sorry!" I started to apologize, but stopped as he placed a long, soft, index finger over my lips.

"No, it's okay—really. I'm the one who snuck up on you while you were drinking, so technically it's my fault." He was beautiful: long crimson-red hair pulled up into a ponytail, and dark blue eyes. He was dressed in a white tuxedo complete with top hat and cape. Instead of a mask, he wore a monocle.

I snapped out of my momentary daze, and tried to apologize again. "Yes, but that punch is going to stain…I wish I could make it up to you…"

"You can." He replied happily, and somehow I felt that I had fallen into some kind of trap he had set for me. It seemed as if he had planned for me to spill the punch on him in the first place.

"How?" I swallowed and asked warily.

"Wait here, and I'll be back in a minute." He was gone and back before I could even blink. When he returned, he was wearing a black tuxedo jacket with a red collar, but no shirt underneath it. He left the jacket unbuttoned, much like Hana, so that his abs and chest were visible. The stranger had even gotten a mask: a red, half-faced mask made to look like the devil himself. It was even complete with devil horns.

"I had another costume with me, so it's really no big deal about you ruining the first one. I like this one better anyway, but if you're so desperate to repay me, you could always let me take you out to dinner. What do you say?"

"But it's two thirty eight in the morning. It's way too late to go anywhere; no one will be open." I tried to get out of going out with a complete stranger.

He grinned, having the perfect counter for my reluctance. "Actually, I know a fancy place that's always open. I swear you'll like it. Oh, my name is Lucifer by the way…what's yours?"

"Uh…my name is Thorn. I suppose I at least owe you a dinner date…that tux must have cost a fortune." My smile faltered a little, as I tried to look reassured.

"Ah…so you're Hao's daughter; the daughter of the great Shaman King. I've heard things about you…but never that you were so gorgeous. I'm honored to be able to escort you to dinner."

I blushed as he lifted my hand to his lips. "Um…thank you. It's a pleasure meeting you as well. Are you sure that you want to pay for me to go to dinner with you?" I was truly honored that he thought I was pretty even if I didn't, but I still didn't feel comfortable going anywhere alone with this guy that I had just met.

Unfortunately finally, he convinced me to go with him. He took me to a nice expensive restaurant on the edge of town and ordered whatever I wanted for me. He was so kind to me and made sure I had whatever I asked for. He went out of his way to please me. Lucifer was very open when he spoke, so he talked about anything I wished to discuss. He listened patiently as I talked about how my father babied me just because of my similar looks to my mother. Lucifer listened quietly and when I was done explaining my troubles he showed sympathy and support. He explained to me about how he was in love with this girl, but she was already involved with someone else. We shared our hardships and day-to-day annoyances, but we also shared our hobbies and other things that made us happy. I really felt happy to finally have someone to talk to. He reminded me of how I felt when I was talking to Valerie. It was a safe feeling; it was like I could actually tell someone what I actually thought and not be judged.

"So, what's your favorite color?" Lucifer smiled at me as we walked back to Funbari Onsen.

I had to think about it. I never really thought about colors often. "I suppose I like green. I'm not exactly sure why…What about you?"

"I like white…It reminds me of Heaven and pure junk like that. It also reminds me of the X-LAWS….though I don't think that's an incentive to like the color white…"

Lucifer looked a bit lost in his memories, so I hesitated to ask, "Who are the 'x-laws'?"

"Huh? Oh…them…they were anti-Hao during the Shaman Fight. All but a handful are dead now though. I think maybe three are still alive. There weren't many to start out with anyway."

"So here we are…" I announced as we approached the En Inn, not sure what to do.

"Yeah…" He agreed reluctantly. "Hey, Thorn?"

"Hmm?" I slightly angled my face towards him, but I kept my eyes focused on the house.

"You know, I might not have a chance with that one girl I was telling you about, but I think I've fallen for another one." As he said this, he looked right at me, but being totally inexperienced and clueless when it came to men and love, I had no idea who he was talking about.

"Really? Well that's great Lucifer. I'm happy for you. That other girl really doesn't seem to deserve such a kind and considerate guy like you. I suppose this is where we say goodbye? I really should get home. My father will be really upset when he finds out how late I stayed out…" I looked away from him, a little reluctant to go, but feeling something bad about to happen.

"Thorn…Come with me, I…We need to talk." His voice sounded so serious. It kind of scared me.

He led me through the back gate and into the yard. Lucifer opened a balcony door to one of the empty rooms of the house and guided me inside. The room was a western style bedroom. It looked odd in the old Inn, but somehow it seemed befitting that Anna would want to keep up with the times and modernize at least one of the rooms in the house.

I took a seat on the weird western bed and took a better look about the room. It was in a more abandoned part of the house; the part that had been closed off for the big party. No one was in the rooms surrounding the one we were occupying, and the music from the party was so loud that you couldn't hear someone unless they were right next to you, screaming in your ear. "Lucifer? We're in a bedroom."

"Yeah? So? We need to talk, and here no one at the party will hear us even if we scream or yell or anything." Lucifer casually flicked off his shoes, and took off his jacket. "Thorn, do you like me?"

Now THAT was an odd question. "Well, yeah…we're friends right?" I shifted positions oddly on the bed so that I was lying down.

"I mean, do you _like me,_ like me?" He walked slowly towards where I lay on the bed.

"I suppose…yes. I do like you." He was very attractive, a nice person, and I felt that I could safely talk to him about anything really, so I figured that maybe I did really like him. But of course I had no clue seeing as there were twelve year-olds more experienced in the affairs of the heart than I was. I could have been in love with him, and just not have been able to tell.

"And how old are you?"

"I'll be seventeen this Christmas…why?" I had no idea about the relevance of his question.

"That's good…don't want to do anything illegal." A lustful gleam shown bright in his eyes, but I, as usual had no idea as to what was going on.

"Lucifer?"

LIMISH PART STARTS HERE!

"Don't be scared; it only hurts a little at first, then you're too busy screaming my name and enjoying it to care about the pain." He straddled my hips and pushed me down onto the bed before I could ask what he was talking about.

It all happened so fast and before I knew it he pushed his lips to mine, forcibly parted them, and let his tongue freely explore the inside. I tried to get away, but it was no use. The more I struggled, the further he pushed his tongue into my mouth, causing me to immediately calm down from the pain of his force. I had never felt anything like it before. I didn't know whether to scream or just accept him. I felt totally drunk. What was he doing to me to make me feel this way? How did he so easy force me down and control me? I had never asked him to force his tongue on me like that! I decided to just let him do what he wanted. He wasn't hurting me that badly, and I was sort of enjoying his strange kiss.

I didn't want him to stop, but I knew we both had to breathe sometime. Thankfully, after he stopped for air, he quickly started up again, each time coming back with ten times as much force as the last. I felt so weak just laying there and letting him 'kiss me. My father would be furious if he knew what I was doing.

"Forget about your father and think only of me." Lucifer instructed firmly. It was as if he could read my thoughts. "I'm the one who controls you now." As if to prove his point, he ran his fingers through my hair causing me to shiver. I didn't want him to stop, but somehow this felt so wrong, like no one was supposed to have such power over me, but somehow Lucifer did.

My entire body stiffened as he deepened the kiss, pushing himself further and further into my mouth'. He swirled his tongue around inside and made me want to gasp for air. He seemed so satisfied when I looked away from him and started breathing hard.

"Come on Thorn, admit that you're having fun in this little play session." He teased and started to run his fingers over my lips. I tried to stop panting, but it was really no use. I couldn't catch my breath. I was so scared of that look in his eyes. He parted my lips again by force and one-by-one ran each of his fingers along the inside of the bottom lip and then my top lip, slowly torturing me.

'What is he doing?' My breathing had almost returned to normal. I tried to fight him off and get away, but he shoved me back underneath him on the bed, determined to 'talk' with me.

"Thorn, you are mine. I've decided to add you to the list of women to pursue. I will not stop until you give up your free will and follow me blindly. Understand?"

I looked wide-eyed at him wondering what kind of sick freak I had let into my life. I was about to scream, but he shoved two fingers into my mouth at the same time. The sharp jab made me want to scream all the more. It had hurt; he was trying to shove his entire fist into me just to shut me up. I felt as if I would explode. My mouth wasn't made to contain his whole fist, but it seemed to be trying to stretch to fit it.

I couldn't speak, so instead I gave him a defiant glare saying, 'Why are you doing this to me? What do you want, and why are you hurting me!'

"Oh Thorn…" He smiled evil as his fingers started messaging the inside walls of my mouth. "Girls have the most interesting facial expressions when you cause them pain. I enjoy watching you in pain. I wonder what sort of pained face you'll make when I shove this fist all the way through you into your stomach?"

My eyes widened in pain as he shoved his fist further into me hitting up against what felt like a wall, like the back of my throat. He pushed forcefully up against it, and I thought he would go right through me, the pillows underneath me, and the bed if he pushed at me any harder. It seemed as if he was trying to reach inside my body for my soul.

"I am…and when I get it, you're going to enjoy being ripped apart piece by piece by me. Give yourself to me Thorn, and I swear I'll make it fun. I'll take over you slowly, and it'll hurt so much. I suppose it will only be fun for you if you enjoy pain, but I'm sure you'll just get use to it like all the others before you."

I started to cry when he increased the pressure on me. I screamed. At least I tried to: his hand covered my mouth. I drew in quick breaths through my nose and screamed over and over again. The end result came out as something that sounded remotely like 'LUCIFER!' His hand pulled back a little, relieving some of the pain. I screamed his name again. That seemed to make him happy enough to stop hurting me. His hand was almost out of my mouth by my third call of his name.

I stopped screaming because I had gotten used to the comparably smaller pain. That didn't make him happy at all. "If I were you, I'd scream louder." He shoved his hand back up against my back wall, his fingers tearing at the sides, trying to rip me open from the inside.

I screamed like a mad woman, over and over again. I was surprised no one heard my agonized cries. I tried to break away from him again, but this time was no different from the last few attempts. It was as if he was attached to me. I rolled and tossed underneath him, but his hold on me was too good and whenever I got close to breaking free, he would blind me with pain by pinching the inside walls of my mouth. He laughed evilly, clearly enjoying the pain he inflicted on me.

Finally it occurred to me what I had to do: seduce him out of killing me. Hoshi had told me time and time again of Ivy's adventures. Whenever my mother got into trouble, she either fought her way out of it, or used her sex appeal to get away. I hated myself for sinking to Ivy's level, but this was an emergency. I had to get out of this mess without losing my innocence.

I wrapped my legs around his waist, arched my back, and lifted my hips so that I would be pushed up against him. The close intimate contact startled my aggressor, and I took advantage of his momentary dropped guard. I took his hand in my own, and pulled him out of my mouth. A slow dribble of saliva and blood flowed from the corner of my mouth.

Seeing the mess he had made, he cleaned it up with his tongue. I glared in disgust. He greedily licked up every drop and then sucked at my lips for more. I would have given anything to get him away from me right that minute.

"Thorn…you've been giving into my affection too easily." He mock scolded. "How far will you let me go?" I slapped him hard as his hand found its way to my thigh."

"You're the devil aren't you? The one that brought me to this party in the first place." I glared evilly up at him.

"Yep. And since I can't lay a finger on your mother, I'll take you instead." He grabbed hold of my wrists and teleported us somewhere. When we arrived I was still trapped under him, but instead of the small bed back at Funbari Onsen, I was in a much bigger bed. "We're back at your house, and don't worry: no one's home. Your sister is off sleeping with some random guy, and your father is sharing Valerie's bed tonight. So, I ask you: may I share yours?"

"Go to hell!" I spat.

"Oh, I will. Just give me a little goodbye kiss. You had better respond this time or I will kill you and devour your soul. Then we can do this every night. You're in the abandoned bedroom, so if I kill you here, no one will find you for days. Now, let's make this a special farewell kiss." He ordered.

Without waiting for my consent, he forced my lips open one last time and slowly slid in his tongue. I hated the heated, drunken feeling he forced on me. I didn't want him anywhere near me, but here he was on top of me. My father was sure to kill him if he ever got the chance. Lucifer ran his fingers through my hair, pulling and yanking on every strand. 'Come on Thorn, respond to me or I will kill you.' His thoughts rang through my head. I gently stroked his hair, and I could almost see the wicked, pleased smirk on his face. His tongue came to life in my mouth, playing tug-o-war with me. I tried to play back, doing whatever seemed natural, but truth be told, I was crying inside having to obey his will or die. He pulled away slightly, but still not completely out of my mouth. "Okay Thorn, this is it. Either try with all of your worth, or die."

He pushed me down hard against the bed and teased me with his tongue I was not enjoying this in the slightest bit, but whatever would save my life. 'How can my sister stand guys doing this to her?'

'She responds to them and lets them have a good time.' Lucifer read my mind as he deepened the kiss. 'Come to me Thorn.' I decided to play along by arching my back and moaning slightly into his mouth. He pressed me down harder. It was like he was trying to flatten me. I tried to contain my screams of pain as he pushed his tongue hard up against the back of my mouth wear his fingers had been clawing before. His hands had made it sore, so now it hurt worse as he tongue pushed against it. I could feel the wall bleeding. All the muscles in my mouth wanted to break after all the stress he had been putting them through. My throat was dry and sore as he pulled half away from me again.

"One last thing Thorn." Our saliva mixed together and he forced most of it down my throat. I struggled to get away from him, but his tongue was still in my mouth, so I couldn't free myself. Then Lucifer released everything into me at that one moment. He took all the pent up anger, lust, and sadness out on me. He pulled away, and the saliva exchange ended. I felt so tired, but I wanted him to kiss' me again and again. Somehow I was getting addicted to his intimate kisses and his tongue in my mouth.

He licked at my lips, cleaning up all the saliva and blood he had left behind. "How does it feel to be controlled like that? I've always wanted someone to force me down and take out all their stored emotions on me, but no one wants to be loved by the devil."

LIMISH PART ENDS HERE!

He smiled down at me as I cried on the bed. "You won't remember this when morning comes. You'll wake up in your own bed, and the only thing you'll remember is falling in love with a man named Lucifer at the party."

"How can you say that after the physical abuse I went through! Surely your rough handling will leave marks on my body." I objected.

"Nope." He smiled and placed a hand over my heart. "You will remember nothing, and I will leave no trace evidence that I was here. The best part is that you get to walk away a virgin. You're sister wasn't so lucky when I took her out to dinner." Lucifer winked one last time at me before I fainted.

The next morning I woke up in my own bedroom with no memories of the previous night spent with Lucifer. I remembered every detail of the party up until he took me into one of the Inn's rooms. What we talked about while in that room, I had no remembrance of. I simply remembered him taking me home and passionately kissing me good night. I suppose he escorted me up to my room because when I woke up I found a gift lying on the pillow next to me. _To Thorn, with love, from Lucifer. Every beautiful woman needs an equally beautiful necklace. _I opened the box and cooed over the emerald heart choker he had given me.

I also remembered another boy…a boy with dark violet hair and snowy blue eyes. He called himself 'Dao Lian', but I had a feeling that that couldn't possibly be his real name. But still, that hair and eye coloring seemed so familiar.

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Mikau: Well…that wasn't so bad…I'm feeling a little peppier than I have been as of late, so that means I'm getting better, or that I'm going to get worse. Oh well. My friend is doing better for all those who care (thank you all for inquiring.) she's talking to her teachers about it, and I think she's going to be okay. She seems happier. Well, thank you all for your reviews. I only wish I could talk more, but my dad wants me to "KARA! GO TO SLEEP NOW, WE'LL TAKE YOUR LAPTOP AWAY IF YOU DON'T!" My father isn't very good at grammar, so he'd probably write it exactly like that: ALL CAPS, and as a comma splice. Sometimes I wonder where I got my love of grammar. Until next time! Smiles brightly

Hugs To: ChibiAzn3, DarkPisces33, yo wuz up, Hemila-Rose, y0ur-w0rst-nightmARee, morgan000, Kiva Kyoyama, glitter galz, HAO-Addictive, Andrea Nefisto, Karay, Shamanbabe, kyouyama ivy, and Strawberry.

To Karay: I don't think the sites are working for anyone…so sorry. Maybe if you keep trying the sites eventually it will work. All of them seem to go down at one time or another. I hope that they eventually work for you. Again, so sorry. And about what God would look like: I think that God has no definite form, but like Lucifer in my story can change form at will, so therefore has no specific gender, height, weight, eye color, hair length, etc…Only, the Lucifer in my story seems to like looking like Hao. He also seems to like being a guy. Go figure.

To kyouyama ivy: Hello! Thank you so much for your enthusiastic review. I always appreciate people who think highly of my work. Thank you so much! Hugs It's people like you who brighten my day and make me want to keep going.

PLEASE REVIEW!


	13. IvyxHaoxValerie

Mikau: Hello everyone! Yet again I'm extremely sorry for taking so long. I feel badly about it, but I really can't help it with all the homework and Beauty and The Beast rehearsals. Yes, that's right I'm in Beauty and the Beast! I'm in ensemble! That means I get several different costumes and get to sing and dance and say any random lines that they give me. I don't have a major character, but I'm really happy to even be in the show. So many people got turned away, and since I'm only a Sophomore (they mainly cast Juniors and Seniors), I'm very, very lucky to be in the show at all. Anyway, on with the story…

**_Disclaimer:_** I don't own Shaman King.

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IvyxHaoxValerie

When I woke up the next morning she was gone. There wasn't even a note. I got up out of bed and slipped on my shoes and shirt, not bothering to actually button the shirt. I crept into the kitchen and joined my twin for breakfast. He seemed to be the only one awake in the entire house.

I sat down across from Yoh and picked up a cup of coffee. My little brother smiled suggestively at me. "Sleep well Hao?"

"Better than I have in years." I smirked slightly, but didn't bother looking at him. I sipped my coffee quietly and ignored Yoh, as he waited for details. "Nothing happened."

"Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiight. Of course not." Yoh peeled an orange, all the while giving me a look that plainly said, 'liar.'

"I'm serious. You're starting to inherit my pervertedness. Sure, we were both pretty drunk, and we shared a bed, but that doesn't mean I slept with her." I lightly reprimanded him.

"Hao, I've never known you to get in bed with a girl and NOT seduce her into sleeping with you." Yoh smiled knowingly at me. Suddenly a hint of puzzlement grazed my brother's eyes. "But Ivy doesn't drink."

"Well Valerie apparently does." I stole a piece of his orange while he wasn't looking.

"Huh?" My cute younger twin became even more confused. "What do you mean? I just said that she doesn't. She hates alcohol."

"Wait, which one are you talking about, Valerie or Ivy?" I set down my coffee cup and stared blankly at Yoh.

"It doesn't matter; they're the same pers—uhhh…" My brother looked like a deer caught in the headlights as he sat there staring at me with his eyes wide and his mouth hanging open.

An awkward silence hung in the air as we both sat looking at each other. I raised an eyebrow at him, and Yoh clearly looked scared to death of what I might say. I slowly opened my mouth to ask what he had meant, but was interrupted by an abrupt explosion.

"What the Hell!" I grabbed onto my glass to keep it from spilling as the whole house shook.

Yoh looked extremely relieved for the interruption, but I chose to ignore him. A panicked set of footsteps stumbled up the wooden basement stairs, and Valerie, dressed in a light green tank top and black capris, dashed hurriedly out of the underground laboratory. She hurried over to the sink and doused her left hand in cold water.

"Hey V." Yoh smiled happily at the girl at the sink.

Valerie looked over her shoulder quickly at the two of us at the table. "Good morning, Yoh."

"Chemical spill?" Yoh got up from the table and leaned up against the sink counter, standing right next to the girl.

"Yep. All over my hand." Valerie looked uninterestedly down her arm.

"Won't leave a scar will it?" Yoh hovered over her shoulder and looked curiously down at her hand.

"No it should be fine. I just have to run it under cold water for at least fifteen minutes. Thanks for your concern though." I looked her over, carefully taking in every detail of her tired face. She looked lovely in such a forlorn way.

While those two were still chitchatting, I walked up to the sink area and stood on the other side of Valerie from Yoh. I leaned up against the counter so that my back was facing it. "Hi Valerie." I gave her a grin that would have made other women drop dead.

Valerie just sighed tiredly and looked away from me, down into the sink. "Oh…you're still here Hao? I thought you would have left by now…Good morning, I suppose."

"Are you okay? You seem a little miffed…" I raised an eyebrow as I titled her chin up so that she had to look me in the eye. I leaned in to study her features more closely, and our faces were but a few scant inches from each other.

Yoh took the opportunity to sneak out of the room as to leave us alone.

"I'm not miffed…I'm just tired and lacking patience for everyone and everything living in this world." Her eyes became half-lidded and seemed to wander drowsily to my lips.

"Really? You seem miffed." I leaned in closer in hopes of stealing a kiss.

"I told you…" she slowed down her speech as she became more and more entranced with me.

"What?" I egged her on, and slid my arm around her waist, pulling her closer.

A cold splash of water hit me in the face. "I'm not that easy." Valerie smirked evilly, pulling away from me. Her eyes gleamed as I jerked away in surprise. A cute smile graced her lips, and I couldn't help but smile back.

That's when I noticed her eyes. "Hey, did you change your eye color?"

"Huh? No…not on purpose. Why, what color are they!" She panicked, picking up a small tin container and checking her reflection.

"Violet."

"Shoot! Stupid chemicals…" Valerie proceeded to curse in several different languages, one of which, I think, was Chinese. After a few curse words had escaped her lips, she turned towards me, turned off the kitchen sink, and put down the little tin cup. "Uhh…sorry…It's just that lately I've been having a lot of explosions, and the chemicals seem to be randomly changing my eye and hair colors…it's never done this to me before, but just lately I can't seem to keep the same physical characteristics for more than a few days…" Valerie dried off her hands and turned to go back down to the lab.

I caught her by the arm and stepped in front of her. "What colors are your hair and eyes naturally?" A still silence seemed to form between us as I awaited her answer. I had to know, but I had a feeling that she would lie to me. She was so much like Ivy…

"What colors would you like them to be?" She made it sound like I was ordering a pizza.

"Brown. Dark brown eyes and coffee brown hair." I gently cupped her cheek, trying yet again to kiss her to cheer her up. She seemed so depressed.

An ironic smile painted her sad lips. "That's what I thought you would say…Goodbye Hao." She broke away and rushed over to the basement steps as quickly as possible, but before descending the stairway, she paused, and without turning around, said, "I'll…see you…later?" She sounded, to my delight, hopeful. It was like she was asking me to come and see her again.

I smiled sadly and nodded, even if she couldn't see me. "But of course. I'd love to see you again, and sooner is better than later so…maybe as soon as tomorrow night?" I held my breath and waited to be rejected.

"At seven?" I could tell she was holding her breath too.

"I'll pick you up then." I was semi-shocked that she had even agreed.

"Be on time…Don't keep me waiting." Valerie cast a flirtatious smirk over her shoulder before disappearing down the stairwell.

"As you wish." I gave her a playful wink as I faded in a burst of flames.

A loud babble could be heard even in the hallway outside of the kitchen, and I was noisily greeted by all of my followers as I entered the room. Blocken sat atop Bill's shoulder pad and waved a Lego hand at me as I made my entrance. The Boz, Zen and Ryo, stopped playing awful music long enough to bid me good morning. Zan-Ching smiled in his twisted way and gave a 'Hello Master Hao.' Peyote set down his alcoholic beverage and sent an acknowledging nod my way. Turbine smiled underneath his turban and greeted me. Macchi ran up to me and hugged me tightly, screaming 'Hello Hao-sama! I missed you last night; where were you!' Kanna said a quick hello as she made sure all twelve of her children had breakfast and were behaving themselves. Bill smiled happily and bid me a "Nice day out isn't it Hao-sama?". Luca gave me a look that said, 'Where were you last night and what were you doing, young man?' Opacho rushed into the kitchen, grabbed a piece of toast, and started a conversation with Kanna's oldest, Azariel. He gave me a quick smile and a wave when he noticed my presence in the room.

By the time I reached my seat, all my original followers, plus a few new ones, had sufficiently greeted me except for one. Mari stepped in front of me and glared. "Yes, Mari?" I smiled cautiously at her.

"Where was Hao? He didn't come home last night, and Mari, Macchi, and Hoshi were worried. Hoshi came home on time, and was very scared when Hao wasn't home to check up on her." Her eyes were no more cheerful than usual, and her tone was as depressed as ever, so it was only natural that she made me feel ill at ease. I actually felt like I had done something wrong by not coming home.

"It was nothing Mari. Nothing happened; I just couldn't make it home, that's all. I'm sorry." I apologized, marking her cheek with a kiss.

"Hao should tell Hoshi that. She should still be up in her room. Hoshi was very drunk when she got home, so Mari thinks that she will have a huge hang-over." The blonde doll-master took her seat at the table across from Macchi, and didn't speak another word to me throughout all of the meal.

After awhile, the room thinned out, and soon all that was left eating were Mari, Macchi, Kanna, Opacho, Luca, and I. I tried to ignore Luca's stares; he always made me feel like I was some teenager in trouble with his parents. Opacho too sent curious glances my way, always interested to know what was happening in my personal life. Mari and Macchi traded scandalized and theorizing looks, while Kanna just sat and eat her French toast. I slowly played with my food, not hungry for a second breakfast, but hesitant to leave.

As my twin daughters made their way into the kitchen and took their respective seats, two more questioning pairs of eyes were focused on me. Finally Kanna broke the suspense and just right out asked, "So, how many last night?"

"How many what, Kanna?" I didn't let any inkling of comprehension into my voice as I retained a calm but confused look on my face.

"Drinks!" Macchi shouted at the same time that Mari screamed, "Women!"

I looked incredulously at the both of them, but then slid my blank stare back to Kanna. "Which one Kanna: women or drinks?"

"Both." Luca interrupted. "You have a problem Hao, and it's time that you admitted and confronted it." Trust him to sound like he was my father.

I let out a soft, but over-dramatic sigh. "Fine, if you must know…I really wasn't all that drunk last night. I only had five or six drinks. Also, I didn't sleep with anyone."

"Opacho thinks he's lying." The college student rolled his eyes at me.

"I agree!" Macchi seconded the motion.

"Mari also." Marion just had to put in her two cents.

Luca glared challengingly down at me from across the table. "If you weren't sharing a bed with some woman, then where did you sleep last night?"

I smiled back at him in my, oh so antagonizing, way. "Oh, I never said that I didn't share a bed with a woman. I just said that I didn't sleep with her…actually, her name is Valerie." My tone softened into a sort of longing, dreamy sound when I mentioned her name.

My change of voice didn't go unnoticed by almost everyone else in the room. Luca stared at me for a minute, contemplating what this meant, and when he understood, a sort of 'Ohhhhh…' look patronized his face followed by a soft smile, and a relieved sigh of, "Finally after sixteen years you're opening up again." The old priestly man picked up his plate and left the room without another word.

Opacho stared blankly at me, but then voiced, "Ivy would be happy for you." And left much like Luca.

"I thought that you looked happier today." Kanna picked up her empty dish and pulled the rest of the Hanagumi out of the room. Mari and Macchi looked completely scandalized and jealous.

"Dad? Like, what's going on? What are they all talking about?" Hoshi's eyes looked sad and confused. She was a smart girl, despite her acting like a blonde, and she didn't like to be kept out of the loop.

"Yeah, what are they talking about?" Thorn echoed her older twin.

"I…" I wasn't exactly sure of how to tell them. I had no idea how they would react. I hadn't really 'officially' been dating anyone for the past sixteen years of their lives, so how would they feel if I suddenly came out of the blue and said, 'I'm in love.' That would have been weird for any single parent.

Fortunately I was spared from the awkwardness by my faithful companion, Hane. He jumped up onto my lap and barked loudly. "He's in love with this Valerie girl, and he really wants to marry her! You girls will finally have a mother, and Hao can stop drinking and sleeping with prostitutes!" The little cocker spaniel jumped off my lap and rushed out of the room just as quickly as he had appeared.

The twins both looked at me with the same 'Oh. My. GOD.' expression. Thorn was the first to speak. "Prostitutes, Dad!"

I let out a huge sigh and laid my head down on the table. "Yes. Drinking and women ever since I lost Ivy…I really couldn't control it, but for a while it got better. Now it's pretty bad again…It's like a disease. I've tried to cut back on the women, and I have succeeded to some point, but my drinking has just gotten worse. I'm sorry but I just really can't help it." I looked up pitifully at my younger daughter. "I'm trying to stop."

"Daddy…" Thorn hugged me like a Teddy Bear and smiled her Ivy-like grin. That really didn't help things. "It's okay…I just wish you would have told us."

"He couldn't have told you." Hoshi snapped angrily at her sister. "You hardly understand the basic principles of love, so how could you understand such problems?"

"Why you little!" Thorn let go of me and drew her pistol, pointing it at Hoshi. "I'm not as incompetent as you think."

"Oh really? Chip! Into the sparrow feather!" Hoshi sprouted wings and got ready to swoop down and kick Thorn's butt.

"Isa! Into 'Jack'!" Thorn shouted and released a string of bullets onto her sister.

The girls fought for a while, neither one hitting the other, until I decided that they had caused enough damage to the kitchen. "Spirit of Fire!" My fire spirit grabbed both of the twins and held them tightly, breaking both oversouls. "Hoshi, Thorn! Stop it now. There's no need to fight." I glared evilly at them. It had been so long since such bloodlust had appeared in my eyes. I hadn't senselessly killed anyone in years.

"But she started it!" Hoshi complained.

The S.O.F. tightened his grip on her. She squealed in pain. "You were the one who started this, now apologize to your sister." Murder was evident in my eyes as I glared at my oldest.

She muttered a quick sorry to Thorn, and my spirit released both of my daughters. My eyes softened, and everyone went back to sitting quietly in their seats.

"Why do you seem so angry, Hoshi?" Thorn looked curiously at the older of the two.

"It's nothing." She pouted, still seething.

"It doesn't sound like nothing." My eyes pleaded for her to tell me what was wrong.

"Awe, Hell! If you just have to know, I'm mad at you!" She jumped to her feet and glared across the table at me. Her eyes glowed with flames.

"What did I do?" I thought back to earlier parts of the conversation, but could not find anything that I had done that would make her mad.

"What haven't you done?" Hoshi picked up a china cup and threw it at me. I just barely got my arms up in time to block my face. The cup shattered and left bloody streaks along with embedded pieces of glass all up and down my forearms.

"HOSHI!" Thorn screeched at her sister and tried to restrain her.

The blue-eyed demoness threw her younger twin easily up against a chair, knocking the latter out. Hoshi pick-pocketed Thorn's gun and pointed it at me.

"You bastard! You've been cheating on my mother for sixteen years with thousands of other women! You've been a horrible father to her children, and you just can't seem to take in enough alcohol!" The gun went off, and I just managed to dive out of the way.

"Hoshi, what are you doing?" My voice sounded strange even to my ears. It was cold and distant, yet sad and calm.

"I'm going to kill you, that's what I'm going to do!" The amount of rage and madness shone crystal clear in her eyes. It scared me because she looked exactly like I had when I had fought Yoh. She looked absolutely insane.

"Will that really solve anything?" I got slowly back up to my feet.

"It'll make me feel better! You took my mother away from me, so now you're going to pay!" Another gun shot rung loudly throughout the room, and I found myself again jumping out of the way to save my life. "It's your fault that she left Hao, and now you're going to pay! She left because she couldn't stay with us any longer, but it was your fault that she couldn't stay! It's all, your fault! You could have talked her out of it! You could have helped her! You could have made it so that she didn't have to go, but you didn't! You didn't even try to help her! You didn't even try to make her stay with us!" Hoshi took one step at a time towards where I lay on the ground. "You're the one who got her pregnant, and so I hold you responsible for her leaving because we were born!"

"You know that's not why she left. She had to go—"

"NO! She didn't have to do anything, and so, it's your fault that she left! It's your fault!" Soon she was on top of me with the gun pointed to my head.

"Maybe you're right; maybe you're wrong. Do us both a favor, and just pull the trigger. Maybe I'll see Ivy again when I'm a ghost." I closed my eyes and awaited death for the third time.

It didn't come. Only a light thud, and a small whispered 'Dad?' met my ears. I opened my eyes to find Hoshi lying unconscious on top of me, and Thorn standing over the both of us looking pale. "Dad?" She whispered again. "Are you okay! She was going to kill you so I had to. Please don't be mad!"

I got to my feet and carefully picked up Hoshi's body. "W-what happened?" I blinked several times in confusion.

"I shocked her to knock her unconscious, just like you showed me." Thorn explained. "I was careful to use just enough to stun her for a few hours. I didn't mean to hurt her."

A smile eased over my lips. "It's all right. She's just unconscious. Nothing to worry about. Hoshi should be awake in a few short hours, but until then you had better go out of the house. She might be a bit riled up when she wakes up." I hugged my youngest daughter protectively.

"Okay. Are you all right Dad?" Thorn was still quite shaken.

"I'll be fine, thanks to you." I handed her, her gun and watched as she walked slowly out of the room.

"If you say so…I'll be over at Hana's okay?"

"Okay…be careful." I couldn't help but give a fatherly warning. She smiled and waved it off saying that she was always careful. I smiled slowly and shook my head at my over-protective nature. Just as she was leaving, I noticed an emerald heart pendant choker hanging around her neck along with a small silver key on a simple silver chain.

'Ivy…'

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Mikau: Like I said before, I feel really badly for taking so long…I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, it was sort of a pain to find time to write. I've had so many projects and tests and everything else. I really do like the way this one turned out though. My only regret is that I didn't get to go over it and check for errors enough. I have to go get ready for my play today. I have to leave in thirty minutes, and I'm not ready. Today, I'm in a musical called 'Working' we did it over the summer, and now we're doing it yet again. My cousin is yelling at me to come upstairs and get my costumes together, so I really have to go. Thank you all for the reviews!

Thanks To: Hao-Addictive, IvyaLLurE13, hannah, Hemila-Rose, KaZuYa MiNeKuRa, glitter galz, yo wuz up, Firebane5, DarkPisces33, MaiValentinefan, Knux33, Danny, Andrea Nefisto, Kara, ivyxhao 4eva, mEguMicHaN13, morgan000, ChibiAzn3, ChibiKitsune, megumi13, y0ur-w0rst-nightmARee, Kiva Kyoyama, Strawberry, and LisaTheHedgehog.

To IvyaLLurE13: Thank you for all the reviews! I appreciate it, but it might make my flamers mad that you review so much. They come up with the craziest comments about how I only get so many reviews because 'the few readers that I do have review too much.' Insane right? Well, I'm really happy that my fics changed your life. It really makes finding time to write worthwhile when you get comments like that. Thank you for telling me. About the picture of me: I'd love to, but my parents wouldn't like it. The only reason I'm aloud to post things on the internet is because I sort of promised them I wouldn't give out really personal info or photos of me. So sorry…it kills me to disappoint a fan, but my parents are just like that. I could describe myself in agonizing detail if it would help, but I really don't think I'm all that pretty…(thank you though.) I have shoulder length brown-ish red hair, and black-ish brown eyes. My nose is a pinch too big, my lips are too medium sized, my neck is too skinny, my chest is too big, my stomach isn't flat enough, my hips are too small, my thighs are too big, my calves (especially the left one) are all scared up, and I don't like my feet.

PLEASE REVIEW!


	14. Lunch Date

Mikau: Hello! I'm back and in a pretty good mood. I had two free periods today, so I worked on this. My first one was first period, so I was pretty much asleep while typing, so forgive a weird sentences or spelling errors. By the way, Anna says: "yo! wuz up!" I must remember to teach her proper grammar sometime in my life.

**_Disclaimer:_** I don't own Shaman King.

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Lunch Date

I had never been happier in my entire life. He had asked me out! On a date! A bright smile adorned my face as I waltzed down the basement steps, into my laboratory.

"It's been awhile since I've seen that beautiful smile on your face. I really did miss seeing you happy." An ominous voice echoed throughout the room.

"Ah, Lucifer…what a pleasant surprise. Why aren't you in Hell torturing the poor souls down there?" My smile diminished dramatically, but I kept a sugary-sweet tone of voice with the menace.

"My twin is taking care of the torturing today," The annoying demon leaned up against the laboratory counter across from me. "so I get to spend the entire day with you, my beloved."

Lucifer smirked sappily and pulled a bunch of red roses out of nowhere. "For you, Ivy-koi."

I grabbed his wrist and twisted it so that it was behind his back in an extremely painful position. "I'm not your 'koi', so stop calling me that…Thanks for the flowers though." I took the roses and snapped my fingers. In an instant they had been teleported upstairs to a vase in my room.

Lucifer rubbed his wrist and looked hungrily at me. "God you're rough…" I turned my back on him, knowing full well what was coming next. "I bet you're a total minx in bed."

I chose not to respond, being all too used to Lucifer's pervertedness. I picked up a vial of some bluish chemical, and mixed it with a clear solution.

"But I'd have to ask either Hao or Yoh about that, now wouldn't I?" He jumped at the sound of breaking glass.

I had been holding too hard on to the test tube, and it had shattered in my hand. I cursed softly and tried to clean up the mess. Thank goodness the tube had been empty.

The little pieces of glass suddenly levitated off of the counter and hovered over to the trashcan. I glanced over my shoulder at Lucifer, and he beamed happily at me. "I didn't ask for your help."

His arms encircled my waist from behind and he took my hand in his, gingerly pulling out the tiny slivers of glass. "True. You didn't ask, but I'm happy to lend my services anyway."

I relaxed in his embrace, not seeing anything wrong with him doctoring my hand. I soon regretted dropping my guard, for he quickly tried to take advantage of me, groping at my chest and other body parts with his spare hand.

"Lucifer!" He immediately backed off when I elbowed him in the stomach.

"Sorry…you're just so tempting…" He smirked apologetically, giving my thigh one last feel. This earned him a kick to the groin.

"Perverted bastard!" I pulled the last few pieces of glass out of my palm, and returned to my work.

"It's not like you haven't slept with one before…" Lucifer oh so subtly alluded to Hao. "So what are you working on?" Satan disappeared, and then reappeared right in front of me.

"The same thing I've been working on for sixteen years." I smiled wryly back at him.

"Can I help?" He looked eagerly up at me with puppy-dog eyes.

"No, you most certainly may not. You've done enough to me for one day." A hint of disdain couldn't be helped from entering my voice.

"I don't think I've done enough…" Lucifer gently cupped my cheek. "After all, you haven't felt the touch of a man in years…I think I might be able to fix that."

"Oh really?" I turned away from him blushing. "Do you know any men?"

"Oh Ivy! Darling, you cut me to the quick! Do I not look like a man to you?" In a quick burst of flames he reappeared sitting on the lab counter in front of me.

"No, not in the least." I turned away from him again. My face was getting impossibly red just thinking of how far he could go with this topic of conversation.

"Then meet me in your room tonight just after twelve, and I'll prove to you that I'm a man." 'Oh God, there he goes again! Is all he thinks about getting into my pants?'

"No Lucifer. Go away!" I carefully aimed a glass beaker at his head.

"Please Ivy? Just a little taste!" He had moved out of the container's way, and grabbed my arms. "I promise I won't be too rough with you. We both know how delicate that fake body of yours is."

"Get a life!"

"I'd rather take yours."

"Pervert!"

"Tease."

"Rapist!"

"You know we could keep trading insults all day, but we still wouldn't get anywhere." A victorious smile sprouted over his smug face when I didn't respond.

What could I have said? There was nothing to say without sounding childish, and childish is the last thing I wanted to sound in front of him. I could have kept insulting him, but he would obviously keep answering back calmly whereas I was shouting at him and losing my temper. He had control over the entire situation, including me, so it was useless to fight any longer. 'He who fights and runs away, lives to fight another day.' I absolutely hated him for having that kind of physiological power over me, but there was nothing I could have done about it, so it would have been better for me to just keep quiet.

"Aww, now isn't that cute! You're mad at me for being able to get you so angry!" The demon caught me again by the arms and forced me up against a wall. "Doesn't it just kill you to know how I can make your blood run cold and your body temperature skyrocket? I bet your heart is pounding in your ears because of how close I'm getting to you." I winced as he slid his tongue up my throat. "I do wish you would struggle more though, it's so sexy when you try to resist me."

"Get off!" I screeched.

"Ivy, marry me." He pleaded softly, nuzzling the side of my neck. "I promise I'll never mistreat you. You can finally stop working senselessly on this project for a man who has already forgotten you. Please? All Hao cares about is your body, but I still love you even if you don't have a body of your own. You'll want for nothing, Ivy-koi. What do you say? Be mine?"

"You are such a lying bastard." I jerked my hands free, and fought him off of me. "Hao never got remarried, and he's still hopelessly in love with me."

With a right punch of my fist, Lucifer ended up sprawled on the basement floor. "Ewe…I'm in trouble, aren't I?"

"Yes, Lucifer. You are. What, pray tell, did you hope to accomplish by lying to me?" I towered menacingly over him, cracking my knuckles.

"Umm…well, I was hoping that you would forget about Hao, and finally agree to marry me…" He nervously scratched at the back of his neck, and reminded me so much of Yoh. "I suppose my plan to steal you away from Hao didn't work, did it?"

"Nope." I set a foot down on top of his stomach rather roughly to hold him in place while I grabbed a gun and pointed it at where his heart should have been.

"Come on Ivy, you know that you can't kill me. I'm immortal." Lucifer smiled smugly up at me, checking me out even as he lay trapped on the ground under my foot.

"Ah yes, but I can always shoot off some body parts that you might miss." I lifted my foot and aimed right between his legs. A loud gunshot and smoke filled the room.

"AHHHH!" An angry Lucifer appeared behind me, looking quite shaken. "What the Hell were you thinking? You could have seriously injured them!"

I couldn't help but laugh openly at the expression on his face. "Yeah, it probably would have! If the gun were actually loaded! See?" I lifted the gun to my head and pulled the trigger. A gunshot sounded, and smoke flowed out the barrel of the gun.

Lucifer stood looking dazed at me, but slowly an awed, if not lust-filled, look consumed his face. "God, Ivy…you don't know how hot that is…"

"I can make a pretty good guess based on the way you're looking at me; are you trying to catch flies with your mouth?"

His jaw, which had been suspended above the floor, immediately shut. "Sorry…it's just that you really don't know how hormonal you make me. You turn me off and on like a machine."

"Well, I'm good at what I do." I shrugged while multitasking, mixing things with my hands. "Say, I wasn't too harsh on you today with my teasing, was I?"

"No. No, it was fine. I really don't mind as long as you're talking to me. I probably deserved the insults though…" The devil leaned up against the lab counter with his back facing it.

"Damn right. You shouldn't have lied to me, and I'm not going to forgive you that easily for making me suffer for—one, two, three—eleven years!"

"I know…just know that I'm sorry Ivy, okay?" He tried one last time to earn my forgiveness.

"Whatever." I gave an acknowledging nod.

"Ivy?"

"Hmm?"

"I was just wondering—that is to say…Ummm—whatever, I'm just gonna come out and say it: Ivy do you want to go out to dinner with me tomorrow?" I bit my bottom lip and tried to look busy. He seemed so scared that I would reject him, and since I wasn't completely heartless, it made me feel bad to hurt him even if he was the incarnation of evil. He really wasn't that bad of a guy.

"Oh…uh…gee, I'd really like to Lucifer, but I can't; I'm sort of busy tomorrow night…" Even to my own ears it sounded like an utterly pathetic excuse.

"Oh…I see…of course." The crimson-haired demon shrunk away from me like a puppy who had just been beaten, only he tried not to look upset. He reminded me so much of Yoh in the way he tried to act unaffected even when his heart had been ripped out. He nervously rubbed the back of his neck and retreated even further away. "I'm sorry. It was stupid of me to even ask you. I should have known that you wouldn't want to. I really don't know why I—I gotta go."

"Lucifer, wait!" I pleaded, grabbing at his sleeve. He turned and glanced down at the floor, not being able to look me in the eyes. I gripped his hand and stared down at it, running my fingers over his, and eventually bringing it up to rest against my cheek. "It's not that I don't want to…I…I already have a date tomorrow night, and I don't think I'll get home until really late, so I couldn't possibly…" I trailed off as my eyes met his.

His dark pools had such a remorseful look to them, but I really had been trying to turn him down softly. "Let me guess, Hao's taking Valerie out, isn't he?"

"Yes…" I muttered, my own onyx eyes dropping to the ground.

"That's even worse than you just flat out refusing me…Turning me down for another guy…I really do have to go; I sort of left without telling my brother, and he'll be mad when he finds that I left to flirt with a mortal woman."

"Maybe you could take me somewhere some other time?" I suggested.

"Wednesday?" An eager smile remerged on his handsome face.

"Be here at six and we'll go to a movie or something." I smiled reluctantly at my friend's enthusiasm.

"Promise you won't change your mind?" He pleaded one last time for good measure.

"I promise." I rolled my eyes teasingly at him.

It looked like Lucifer was about to say something else, but he paused and listened carefully to something I couldn't hear.

"What is it?"

"Someone's here to see you." He answered, still concentrating on the unheard sound. "Looks like I gotta get out of here, but I'm holding you to your promise Ivy." With a quick stolen kiss on my lips, he was gone, and I was left with a slight tingling sensation on my mouth as if it had been lightly singed.

"Valerie!" A female voice shouted from the top of the stairwell.

"Yes! I'm down here!" I responded, and after a few hesitant footsteps, Thorn appeared in the doorway.

"Are you busy? I really hope I'm not interrupting your research." The timid brunette took a few more reluctant steps into the room.

"Don't worry, you're not interrupting anything life altering important." I picked up a random beaker and pretended to be studying it, just so that it would look like I was doing something. "Hana and the gang should be home in a few hours; they went to the arcade to pick up women. At least that's what Hana and Ivory are doing. Makoto is probably beating all the high scores on the games, and Akira is probably sulking, being depressing, or acting all bad ass."

"Actually, I came here to see you." Thorn smiled warmly, but didn't step any closer to me.

"Really? I'm not all that interesting…but are you just going to stand in the doorway or what?" I smirked teasingly at the girl as she blushed and quickly rushed into the lab.

"Sorry, it's just that I wasn't sure if you wanted me here or not…" My little clone bit nervously at her thumb nail, a habit common to Kyôyama women.

I shrugged uncaringly, but was truly happy to have her there with me. "You're welcome to visit me whenever you want; I just don't know why you would want to—hey, you're an Allure Shaman aren't you?"

My daughter looked a little startled at first, but she soon totally opened up and looked admiringly at me. "Yeah, how did you know!"

"Your fingers." I smirked lightly, picking up a bottle of krypton and running an electric current through it with my own fingers. "Your fingertips are singed from the electricity flowing through them. It's very common for Storm type Allures to get that when they use their powers. I suppose you got those powers from your mother?"

"Yeah, sadly, but now I think it's kinda cool since you seem to be an Allure too!" Thorn watched with interest as I mixed a bunch of chemicals.

"So what happened that you had to use your powers?" I inquired, mildly interested.

"My sister attacked my dad. She was about ready to kill him, so I had to do something…I zapped her, but only enough to stun her for a few hours." The sixteen year-old girl took a seat on a stool across the laboratory table from me.

"What! Why would Hoshi want to kill Hao!" In a moment of shock, I accidentally dropped an entire bottle of Silicon into the mixture, and the whole thing exploded.

After a long bout of coughing, Thorn finally managed to ask, "What happened!"

"That was a sudden release of energy and a rapidly expanding volume of gas; otherwise known as an explosion. Are you okay Thorn?" I pulled myself up off of the floor and pulled the pieces of glass from my skin.

"Yeah, I'm fine, but your eyes and hair…they're…" She slid a mirror over the counter for me to look in.

Blonde and turquoise. My hair was champagne blonde, and my eyes were the color of Native American jewelry. My pale hair was lighter than my sister's, but still managed to look like melted gold like Anna's; my eyes stood out a crystalic clear color against the rest of my features. "Whoa…Oh my God! Look at yourself!"

She pulled the mirror out of my hands, and examined her own face. "Oh my God! I look like…Oh my God!" The reddish tint had been taken out of her hair, so now it looked exactly like mine—well, Ivy's. Her eyes had darkened in color as well. Minor changes, but they gave me the eerie effect as if I was looking into a mirror of the sixteen year-old me. It was creepy to say the least.

"I look like my mother…Dad won't be too happy about this. Well, he'll be shocked to say the least." Thorn's gaze was transfixed in the mirror as if she were spellbound by her reflection.

"Uh…Hey, do you want to go somewhere and get lunch?" I asked off-handedly. I had no real idea of where the question had come from, but in truth I really did want to spend time with my daughter.

Thorn's eyes immediately brightened, and a smile returned to her face. "Sure!" She replied happily.

We talked for a minute and finally decided on going to a nearby café.

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Mikau: I almost forgot, Hannah drew Akira, Hana, Hoshi, Thorn, Makoto, and Ivory. You can see Akira, Hana, Ivory, and Makoto here: http // jingle360 dot deviantart dot com / in the scraps and gallery sections. I really hope she posts the pictures of the twins because I really liked both drawings. Thank you sooooo much Hannah! Also, the thing I said about only having 20 or so chapters might not be exactly true…Yet again, I seem to be writing more than I originally planned. I'm not exactly sure when this will end.

Thanks To: Kiva Kyoyama, ChibiAzn3, LonelyLittleWolf, HAO-Addictive, yo wuz up, Danny, Andrea Nefisto, MaiValentinefan, Darkpisces33, glitter galz, y0ur-w0rst-nightmARee, ivyxhao 4 eva, megumi13, Firebane5, Knux33, AMERICANIDIOT75, and morgan000.

To Ai: No I didn't get your e-card…sorry I that my computer automatically sends e-cards to the trash, and I don't find them in time to save them from being automatically deleted. Congrats on the play; sounds like fun. Also, my calves aren't as scared anymore (if you just glanced at them they would look normal, but if you look really close you can see the cuts and scratches.) as for how I got them, it's rather unexplainable if you weren't there when it happened. I'll tell you this much, the little incident involved scalding tomato juice and glass containers.

To Danny: I'm sorry, but ff dot net won't let us answer all of our reviews anymore, so I have to pick and choose what I absolutely have to answer. Since you haven't had any major questions or comments that needed responses, I haven't been writing to you. Sorry, but it's the stupid rules. If I could I would answer all of my reviewers like I did at first.

To DarkPisces33: At first I really wanted to be an actress, but then I wanted to be a writer. I think I'll do whatever is convenient (aka: whatever I can make money to survive on). I'm not really interested in any stable, concrete jobs, so I plan to do whatever I'm good at. It really would be cool to be an actress though…

PLEASE REVIEW!


	15. A Walk To Clear Thoughts

Mikau: Hello! I have musical rehearsal right after school, and then I have to go directly to my Karate class…I'm going to be super busy today…

**_Disclaimer:_** I don't own Shaman King.

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A Walk To Clear Thoughts

My eyes slowly crept open, but my vision was still blurred. I blinked several times until I could see clearly. I was in my room lying on my bed, and I had the worst headache. "Like…what happened?" I asked no one in particular. Then all at once my memory came back to me. 'That stupid sister of mine!'

'Thorn had shocked me unconscious when I had tried to...damn her!' I flung open my closet doors and pulled out a black leather mini skirt and a bright blue crop top. I quickly changed clothes and hastily, but fashionably, made my way downstairs.

I was about to exit the building completely, but a wall of flames shot up out of the ground and blocked my path. "Hoshi."

I turned to face my father, expecting an enraged look of righteous fury to be embedded in his very pores, but he didn't look angry at all. Actually, he looked a bit upset. "Can we talk?"

"About what!" I spat back at him through gritted teeth.

"What's the matter?" Hao took a hesitant step forward, not exactly sure how to handle the situation.

"Oh, so now you care! Are you finally trying to be my father! I'll tell you what's wrong, I don't want or need a mother. I had a mother, but then before I could even practically meet her so I could remember her, she left! It's all your fault Hao Asakura! Now if you excuse me, I'm going to the graveyard!" I turned on my heel and tried to get out the flaming door. Unfortunately, there was nothing I could do to get past the fiery death trap.

"Hoshi…Look, I'm just dating her. Honestly, I'm not trying to replace Ivy; I'm just—"

"—Oh go drink yourself to death!" The flames in front of me suddenly died. I gave a short, startled gasp, and looked back again at my father.

"Goodbye Hoshi; make sure you don't come home too late tonight." Hao turned his back to me and slunk off into the kitchen.

I was too stunned to say anything in response. 'Wow…talk about mood swings…' I ignored my father's odd behavior and stormed out of the house and all the way to Karasumori graveyard.

I hopped the gate, paying no mind to the 'KEEP OUT' signs, and climbed the many stairs to my favorite part of the cemetery: The little island across from the bridge by the shrine. I loved going out to where Amidamaru's grave was and sitting under the tree. There was another grave on the opposite side of the tree from Amidamaru, and I always kept it supplied with endless amounts of roses. Only a few other people visited the grave since the ghost had already moved on, but even without its owner, that spot in the graveyard was my absolute favorite in the entire world.

The headstone was so beautiful, a plain, white marble cross, encircled with ivy cut in stone. The red of the roses I brought stood out stunningly against the white rock. Sometimes there would be a few other types of flowers left behind at the grave from the mysterious, long crimson-brown haired, young man who visited frequently to confess his undying love for the woman buried below.

I came to the top of the hill to think and sort things out. Whenever I needed to be alone, I came to talk to the cold, stone marble of the grave. I took a seat next to the head stone and stared off into the distance. "Hello there. It's me, Hoshi again. I know you can't hear a word that I'm saying since you already made your way to Heaven, but I feel that I have to speak out loud anyway." I paused as if waiting for a response.

"Well, since you asked, today I wanted to talk about my family. I don't even know where to begin. I suppose the beginning would be a choice place, but I'm not even sure where that is…I guess with my dad…You know Hao Asakura, right?" It took me a minute to realize how stupid my question sounded.

"Sorry; what was I thinking? Everyone knows Hao Asakura, and I'd expect that you especially would…Sorry about the babbling; I'll try and get to the point. My father has been doing this for as long as I can remember, but it never really bothered me when I was younger. I didn't understand what he was doing with all those women until I was about twelve. Then I realized how much he was drinking. At about thirteen years of age I had a grown woman's knowledge about the world, and at fourteen I got involved with men. Any man as long as he paid well. I messed up my life as bad as my father's. He tried to stop me, but by that time I was too far gone."

My fingers unconsciously traced the lettering on the headstone: 'December 25th' "Hao instead tried to protect Thorn, but he went too far with her, and she ended up too sheltered. Hao saw how his actions had affected me, but he didn't stop. It was almost as if he didn't care; he gave up so easily on me…Now, it really makes me angry that he's starting to date again. I saw them together at he Masquerade…both drunk and hanging on each other. I don't like her at all, and will never accept her as my mother! Valerie…even her name sounds so sluty!"

"Valerie Asakura…" I cringed at the new name. "He just can't marry her! I had a mother, and just because she's not with us at the moment doesn't mean that he can just replace her! I feel pretty badly for yelling at him the way I did, but he can't do this to me! Thorn seems really happy to have Valerie as a mom, but that's only because Thorn hated our mother from the start. Now my sister is practically in love with this 'Valerie' woman. I bet that isn't even her real name!"

"Actually, I really do feel bad for yelling at dad and trying to kill him…I didn't mean it…I was just so angry that he could betray my mother like that. I'm sure he'll be fine though…he always is. I'm going to go get lunch or something, so I guess I'll see you later. Thanks for listening as always." I looked lovingly down at the grave one last time before retreating to a nearby bakery.

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Mikau: Yes, I know that this is pathetically short, but that's all the content that was necessary for this short little Hoshi chapter. As you can see I've had her drop the 'like' speech pattern when she speaks her mind. Don't you just love people who pretend to be stupid, but are actually quite the opposite? Anyway, I just wanted to make a comment about the SK manga if any of you read it: I like the Hao from the manga much better than the Hao from the anime. The manga Hao is more like the Hao from my fanfics. He's much funnier and just all around more likable than the jerky anime Hao. I was really disappointed with the SK manga ending though. It kind of just stopped. I'm sorry, I'm babbling now. I really must go, so I shall see you all later!

Thanks To: ChibiAnz3, Andrea Nefisto, DarkPisces33, KaZuYa MiNeKuRa, glitter galz, and MaiValentinefan.

PLEASE REVIEW!


	16. Getting Acquainted

Mikau: Once again, I apologize for being so late with getting this chapter out. It's been hell trying to get all of my homework done, and I've had a lot of musical rehearsals. I could go on and on about how busy I've been, but I don't want to bore you, so on with the chapter. Thank you all for being patient and supportive.

**_Disclaimer:_** I do not own Shaman King.

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Getting Acquainted

When we got to the bakery/café, I took the seat across from Valerie in a big booth by the window. There were so many things I wanted to ask her about, but I didn't know where to begin. "So, how did you come to be living with Aunt Anna?"

"Oh…well, about that—you see, I…well after I left my husband I needed a place to stay, so I went to my cousin Anna. I'm surprised that she doesn't charge me for room and board, or at least make me work for her. I guess since I raised Hana for her, she cuts me some slack, but that's really not normal for her to be so…Never mind. Let's just say that Anna's being unusually nice." Valerie smiled wearily back at me.

"And why did you leave your husband?" I couldn't help but wonder what had happened to break up their relationship.

The blonde-haired woman took a sip of her hot chocolate and almost choked on it. "We had always had communication problems but…it's not that I wanted to leave…I wish I could have stayed, but sometimes things just get too complicated and you end up in over your head."

"Oh…really? Well, you don't have a boyfriend or anything now, do you?" No air entered my lungs as I awaited her answer.

"Actually, I'm not seriously involved with anyone at all right now…" Valerie picked hesitantly at her food, but didn't really bother to actually eat.

"You know, I saw you with my father at the Masquerade. You two looked awfully cozy." I smirked suggestively making her blush.

"D-did you now? We only danced for a little while." She lied.

"Lair. You two danced together all night! I saw you! Besides, my dad has a major crush on you." I took a bite of my bagel and smiled at her reddening cheeks.

"R-really? Did he actually say that?" I could tell I had hooked her interest.

"Yep. He totally has the hotts for you. Tell me, what do you think of him? Do you like him?" 'Please say yes! Please say yes!'

"Well, this is kind of weird talking to his daughter, but—yes, I really like him too." I could hardly contain my excitement, and it took all my energy to keep myself from jumping up and down.

"Enough to marry him!"

"Just what exactly did Hao say about me!" I could tell I went a bit too far with my questioning.

"Oh, it's just that I would really like a mother, and my dad hasn't dated anyone since Ivy, so I thought that maybe if you two ever started dating…that maybe…well, you know." I nervously stirred my coffee, fiddling with the spoon.

"Oh, I see…well, I would love to be your mother if Hao ever asks. By the way, I do have a date with him tomorrow." A sly smirk covered her lips.

"Really! OH MY GOSH! That is, like, oh my gosh!" I smiled brightly as Valerie laughed good-naturedly at me.

We talked away the hours from then on. She asked about how it was for me growing up without a mother, and I told her about how much I hated Ivy. She inquired about my schooling, and my sister, and my dog—somehow she seemed to know Hane personally. We talked about boys, my family, and anything else of interest.

We had been there nearly two and a half hours before I remembered the key around my neck. I took it off and showed it to Valerie. "Hey, Val?"

"Hmm?"

"You wouldn't happen to know what this goes to, would you?" She gazed glassy-eyed at the small silver key, but in the end she shook her head and looked away from me.

"No…I wouldn't have a clue what it would open. It looks like the key to someone's diary."

"Oh really?" The Devil had said she might lie to me. "Someone told me that you knew."

"You must be mistaken; maybe they meant another Valerie." The woman across from me smiled nervously and tried again to desperately thwart my efforts.

"He said you would lie. This key belonged to my mother, but I can't find where she hid her diary. Are you sure that you don't know where it is? You seem to know so much about Ivy…"

"Take off the boots and give them to me." She replied in a dead, defeated tone. I did as she said and watched in awe as she took the key, and opened a secret keyhole in the sole of the shoes. A secret compartment came off and revealed sheets upon sheets of paper.

"Her diary. Wait until you get home to read it." Valerie handed the boots back to me and resumed her second cup of hot chocolate.

"Thorn! Like, what are you doing here!" An exasperated Hoshi stood staring intensely at me. "This is, like, my usual hang."

I looked up coldly at my sister. "I don't see your name on it."

"Uh, hello! This is like Moon and Stars Café and Bakery. _Star's_. As in _Hoshi's._ You, like, never learn. Who's your friend?" Hoshi shoved me to make room for herself in the booth.

"Her name is Valerie Kyôyama. Would you like to join us?" My sarcastic remark came out sounding more tired than anything else.

A sugary smile spread all over my elder twin's face. "I'd love to."

"She has a date with Dad tomorrow." It came out sounding like a childish threat.

"Oh, so you're the one that Hao's been talking about. He's, like, only dating you because you look like our mother, Ivy. She was sooo more pretty than you, though. Hao is, like, soooooo totally still in love with our mom. He hasn't look at another woman in years, so I have no clue why he's bothering with someone like you now. Maybe he's just, like using you—"

"—Hoshi!" I jabbed my sister sharply in the ribs with my elbow.

"Like owwww! What the hell was that for!"

"Don't say things like that! You're just jealous that Dad is finally getting over Ivy."

Hoshi glared dangerously back at me. "He is not!"

"He is too!"

"Not!"

"Too!"

"Not!"

"Too!"

"Not!"

"Girls! Hoshi, Thorn! Stop it!" Valerie physically had to pull us apart. "It doesn't matter why Hao is dating me. The truth is he probably isn't completely over Ivy just yet. They really were in love, so I'd imagine he'll never truly forget her. I don't want to take your mother's place, believe me, but I would like to date your father. Would that be all right with you Hoshi?"

Hoshi gave Valerie a scrutinizing look, as if trying to gauge her. "I suppose it would be all right, but that doesn't mean I like you, or for that matter, that Hao likes you."

Valerie just smiled happily at the two of us as she stood up to leave. "Good. Oh, and by the way, I'm actually really glad that you're so loyal to your mother Hoshi. She really doesn't deserve it for leaving you like she did. Goodbye Thorn." The blonde-haired woman left money for the meal on the table and walked out the door.

I got out of the booth and moved to the seat across from Hoshi, were Valerie had been sitting minutes before. My sister must have noticed my shoes when I moved, for she suddenly decided to comment upon them. "Well, you have the boots and you somehow found the key."

"What do you mean?" I stared blankly at the woman across the table.

"Oh come on, I found that thing and read it so long ago. Hmph, and you're supposed to be the smart one." Two eerie blue eyes rolled at me. "Don't you know about I,SR?"

"No. What's that? Some new STD you've come down with?" I smirked at the homicidal look in her eyes.

"Ha. Ha. You are like so totally hi-lar-i-ous. No, it's an acronym, idiot. It's the name of the book; her diary. It's probably the best book I've ever read." Hoshi flipped a dangling bang out of her face.

"Funny, since when did you become literate?" She smacked me right across the face as punishment.

"It's no laughing matter, Thorn. You really should read it; it'll help you understand her more, and maybe you'll get over your stupid grudge against her." She paused briefly to rise to her feet. "I'm, like, so totally out of here."

I only stayed at the café for a few minutes after Hoshi left. I felt rather uncomfortable sitting in the booth by myself, so I left my money on the table in exact change and started to walk home. Just down the street from the café was a noisy teen hangout of some sorts. I had never been out much, so I was naturally curious as I walked past the building and looked in the windows.

It took me a minute to realize that this was the arcade that Valerie had mentioned earlier; the one that Hana and the gang had gone to. I let my curiosity get the better of me, and walked in. It was a crowded, noisy place; people were bumping into each other, and it was difficult to duck in and out of the masses of bodies. I thought it quite impossible for there to be so many people in one place.

I accidentally bumped into someone and mutter a quick sorry as I picked up the purse she had dropped on the ground.

"Hey, it's you! Thorn right? Remember me?" I looked up at her bushy blue pigtails, massive chest, and gray eyes.

"Hello Ivory. How are you? Valerie said that you and Hana were here to pick up girls." I tried to smile, but I'm afraid it came out fake and much how I really felt: uncomfortable.

"Ah, yeah. Hana's got himself a whole list of hottie's digits, but as for me, I've been running guys all day." The Ainu girl guided me out of the mob and over to an open circular booth.

"What?" I couldn't understand a word of her slang. "Digits?"

"Yeah, their digits; you know. I said: he's been hooking up with a lotta good-looking girls getting their numbers, but I've been flirting with boys today. You don't get out much do you?"

"I'm afraid not."

"Stay here, I'll round up the gang. Hana and Makoto'll be really glad to see ya. Akira prob'ly won't, but he's always in such a bad mood. I really can't stand my cousin's mood swings." Ivory gestured for me to sit and relax, saying she'd be back in a moment.

Hana was the first to be rounded up by the snowboarding princess. He had to physically pull women off of him just to get away from his adoring fangirls. He stumbled his way over to the booth with messy hair and gasping for breath. "Hey Thorn. What're you doing here?"

"Oh, I was out, so I was just exploring." I smiled gently at my cousin, and he sat down next to me.

Off somewhere in the game area, a womanly yelp sounded, "No! Ivory, I was going to beat my all-time high score!" Ivory had to pry Makoto away from the pinball machine, and carry the midget over to the table.

"Oh! Hello Miss Thorn! I was not aware that you were present! I'm so sorry!" The small gentleman bowed low and gave my hand a quick kiss.

A faint blush fluttered to my cheeks; I wasn't use to such royal treatment. "It's perfectly fine Makoto; I just arrived, actually. It's nice to see you again."

"The pleasure is all mine." The Oyamada boy bowed again before he took a seat on the other side of Hana. I was afraid that he would need a booster seat; his head just barely peaked over the tabletop.

Ivory set off to find her Tao cousin next. "AKIRA! What the heck do you think you're doing!" Akira was drug to the booth by his blue-haired cousin.

"You know, HECK is where people go when they don't believe in GOSH." The violet-blue-haired punk replied scornfully.

"Whatever. What the HELL were you doing smoking?" Ivory shoved Akira into the booth next to me. He tripped and landed in my lap.

"Hey! Watch it, Asakura!" The Tao snapped at me.

"It's not my fault!" I bit back, but then blushed at my sudden outburst. "I'm so sorry…it's really not like me at all to get so angry like that…"

"Oh really? I thought that you were always bitchy." Akira straightened himself, holding his nose high in the air.

Something about him just made my blood boil. I couldn't help but grab his wrist and shock him. Just a little jolt; just enough to show him I wasn't to be taken lightly.

"OWWW! Hey! What the hell was that for, you little wh—"

"—That's enough Akira." Hana glared angrily across the table at his friend, placing a protective arm around my waist. "You're not allowed to speak to my cousin like that."

"You win this time Asakura…" The defeated Tao whispered quietly so that only I could hear as he glared at me out of the corner of his icy eyes. "Hey, flower-boy! You want a smoke?" Akira offered a pack of cigarettes across the table to Hana.

"Nahhh. You know I don't smoke. My aunt would kill me." Hana took the pack and tossed it into the nearest thrash can. "Three points for scoring from half court."

"I've always hated basketball." Akira glared malevolently at the man sitting across the booth from him. "And why, pray tell, did you throw away an unopened pack of cigarettes that WASN'T YOURS!"

"Because smoking is bad for you, and your mom and dad would never approve." Hana smiled goofily at his irritated friend. "Besides, when did you start smoking?"

"That was going to be my first time."

"Good. Then it'll be easier to quit." Hana's logic had an odd effect on Akira: he actually shut up.

"Promise us that you'll never smoke Rara-kun." Ivory noogied the violet-blue-haired boy.

"Yes, it's bad for your health." Makoto stated authoritively.

"Don't call me that! And you, don't treat me like a child! I know that it's bad for me, and I'll do whatever I damn well please!" Akira's gaze shifted over to me. I had been silently observing the situation, but had not become a part of the discussion. "Aren't you going to say anything whelp?"

"Actually I wasn't, but now that you've resorted to name-calling again: you're never going to get a girlfriend with an attitude like that, bastard."

"Oh! BURN!" Ivory shouted through a fit of laughs. Hana too laughed openly, but Makoto, trying to be polite, only let out a few stifled bouts of laughter.

"Why you little—!" Akira was about ready to pounce on me, but I was saved by my cell phone going off. The sudden burst of "Oversoul" seemed to startle him.

I fished my cell out of my pocket, but didn't answer it in time. "You have one missed call: Hoshi's cell phone." The little machine informed me. I pushed the call back button.

"Hey, that's Megumi Hayashibara's Oversoul isn't it?" Makoto questioned Hana.

"Yeah, my dad totally loves her." Hana brushed a strand of hair behind his ear.

"So does mine!" Ivory threw her two cents in.

"I don't see why you all insist on talking constantly about any subject that arises. It's quite annoying." Akira insisted on ruining everyone else's fun.

I tuned out the rest of the conversation as someone picked up the phone on the other line. _"H-hello?"_ It was my sister, but she sounded like she was crying.

"Hosh? Is that you?"

_"Thorn? Thank God! Get home right now! You have to come it's an emergency! Dad's—"_ My phone battery died before I could get the rest of her message.

"Hosh! What's the matter! Sis! Are you still there! What happened to Dad! Damn! I knew I should have charged my phone last night…" I looked up at everyone staring at me worried (with the exception of Akira).

"What's up?" Hana gazed seriously at me.

"I don't know. My sister…I don't know; she sounded really…scared. That's not like her at all…Well, it doesn't matter. I have to go home. Sorry guys."

"Wait." A strong but gentle hand caught mine as I stood to leave. I looked back questioningly at Hana. He took both of my hands in his. "Let me drive you. It'll be faster."

"Well…"

"Then it's settled!" Hana's arm wrapped around my waist, and he escorted me outside. "Come on guys, we're going to Thorn's place!"

"Thank you." A shadow of a blush highlighted my cheeks, and I was forced to look at the ground so that Hana wouldn't see my reddening face.

"No prob." Hana dazzled me with his brilliant grin.

Ivory and Makoto tagged along right behind us, but Akira lingered back in the arcade. That was until Ivory shouted back to him: "Yo, coz! We're taking your car!"

Akira bolted from the booth and stood defensively in front of the small Corvette. "No one is going to be driving MY car. You can't! You'll get it in an accident, and then I'll have to pay for it!"

"Oh just give Hana the keys. You know he'll talk you out of them eventually, so it's better to just give them up now." Ivory reasoned.

"No. Not this time. There is no way that I'm letting an Asakura drive MY car." Akira didn't look like he was going to back down, so I took matters into my own hands. I walked up to Akira and kissed him right on the lips. He stiffened at first, but after a few seconds, responded by forcing his tongue into my open mouth. I pretended to be feeling him out as I reached into his back pocket for the keys. When I had retrieved them, I tossed them to a severely confused Hana.

Everyone piled into the car: Hana in the driver's seat, and Ivory next to him. Makoto looked like a very embarrassed doll, sitting on Ivory's lap. "Hey! Lovebirds! Get in the car; we gotta go!" My cousin laughed slightly as Akira pulled away from me and looked scandalously at Hana. I climbed into the back seat of the car.

"How the hell did you…"

"Just get in back next to Thorn." Ivory hugged Makoto to her chest.

Akira grudgingly did as he was told, and we sped off to the Asakura mansion. I couldn't help but notice our close proximity, alone in the back seat. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him stealing glances at me every once in awhile. "Can I help you?" I cocked my head to the side and looked innocently at him.

Akira looked away and blushed at being caught. "What? I didn't do anything, and I most certainly don't need the help of an Asakura."

"Then why were you looking at me like that?" I ignored his rude tone.

"I was NOT looking at _you_."

"Akira, stop thinking dirty thoughts about my cousin!" Hana teased, looking back at us in the rear-view mirror.

"I was NOT thinking about her like that!"

"Then how were you thinking of her, Rara-kun?" Ivory smiled evilly back at the Tao.

Akira flushed a bright fuchsia. "I wasn't thinking about her at all! I was thinking about her sister!"

"What about her?" I spoke up.

The Chinese shaman calmed down enough to answer levelly. "You called her 'Hosh' when you were on the phone. I was wondering if that was a short form of 'Hoshi'?"

"It is."

"And was she at the Masquerade?" If I didn't know any better, I would have described Akira's tone as excited.

"Yeah. So what?" I cocked my head curiously at him.

"Nothing. Never mind…you know, you look like a confused puppy when you do that. It's sort of cute." He mumbled under his breath.

I think I was the only one who heard him. "What!"

"Don't look at me like that Asakura; I didn't say anything." He didn't speak another word after that, and just looked out at the scenery as it flew by.

"Sure you didn't…Uh…by the way, I'm sorry that I picked your pocket. It was wrong of me to trick you like that. Hana, take a left here."

In less than seven minutes we pulled up into the courtyard. "THIS is your HOUSE!" Hana looked bug-eyed at me.

"Yep. A lot of people live here, so it has to be big. Thank you so much for the ride." I got out and fished in my pocket for my house keys.

"Can we see the inside!" Ivory followed me to door.

"Sure." I shrugged, turning the key and opening the door.

Hana, Makoto, and Ivory eagerly stepped inside, but Akira was a bit resistant at first.

"Whoa…you guys must be loaded." Ivory went wide-eyed when she saw the entryway of my home. Ivy had designed the place to her liking, so it was pretty classy when you first saw it. For me it was different because I had grown up rich. I was used to the lavish surroundings, and so I was numb to their elegance.

"Well duh," Makoto rolled his eyes at the Ainu girl. "Hao Asakura is her father after all, and he _is _the Shaman King."

"I never thought of it that way." Hana mused. "Hey! I'm the son of a Shaman King, so why am I not rich!"

"Maybe your parents don't want to spoil you, Hana-kun?" Makoto looked questioningly up at his best friend.

Akira decided to tease me as the rest followed me to the kitchen. "So, Asakura, if your father is Shaman King, what does that make you? The Shaman Princess? Is that why you're so high and mighty all the time?"

"I don't have to answer that." I walked into the kitchen to find Han Zan-Ching, Bill, Blocken, and Peyote throwing away mass amounts of alcohol.

"NOOOO NOT THE VODKA!" Peyote clung desperately to Bill's leg as the football star trashed the hard liquor. Bill gently shook Peyote off of his leg and went back to the liquor cabinet for more to throw away.

"Sorry my friend, but we have to do this. Every drop of alcohol must go." Zan-Ching patted the Hispanic musician on the head, and started to help Bill and Blocken with the disposal of all of the alcohol.

"What's going on guys?" I casually waltzed up to my father's followers and asked.

"Oh! Hello Miss Thorn! Didn't your sister call you?" Zan-Ching greeted.

"Yeah, but my phone died. Where is she now? Do you know?" I set my dead cell phone on the white tabletop of the kitchen counter, and fished a bottle of water out of the refrigerator.

"She went to the hospital with the ambulance." Peyote stared emotionlessly at me.

I choked on the water. "WHAT! What happened!"

"It's your father…" Bill looked sympathetically at me.

Hana rushed over to prop me up so that I didn't fall over in a dead faint. "Wh-wha?" I swear the room started spinning.

"Hao finally drunk himself to death." Peyote didn't even try to sound comforting.

"PEYOTE!" The others sent vicious death glares in the general direction of the Mexican man.

The musician stared incredulously at the others. "What? It's true. He's probably dead by now. He drunk half of the liquor in the house; there's no way that he's going to live."

Bill slapped Peyote upside the head and whispered into his ear. "Don't say such things in the presences of Miss Thorn. She's already looking pretty shaky." The giant turned towards me and put on a brave face for my benefit. "Don't worry Miss. We haven't heard any news yet on Master Hao's condition. Truth be told, Macchi was the one who found him passed out on the floor. We've been waiting for this to happen for years, so we were prepared. Not everyone dies from alcohol poisoning, and Hao-sama is not one to just die like that, so I figure he should be fine."

"Yes. No worries Miss Thorn." Zan-Cing smiled warmly, throwing another bottle of Gin into the fast-filling trashcan. "Master Hao should be fine."

"You all are being too optimistic. Do I need to remind you how much alcohol we had in this house? We have several hundred bottles of wine, beer, liquor, and all other sorts of alcohol. He's dead. Why can't you see that he was _trying_ to drink himself to death." Zan-Ching hit Peyote over the head with a near-by frying pan, knocking the Mexican out.

"Ignore him Miss; he's drunk." Bill sighed.

"Can you give me a ride to the hospital?" I looked questioningly up at my cousin, who still had his arms around me, holding me up.

"Of course. Which one?" Hana agreed even though Akira looked like he was going to protest.

"St. Lucy's." Blocken muttered just loud enough to be audible.

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Mikau: Well, this was a fun, but tedious chapter. I liked the end. Hugs unconscious Hao. I feel so sorry for him….In other news, I got the Osorezan CD! I am sooooooo hyped! I absolutely loooooooooove it! I've only got the translations for the first three tracks, so that means that I'm missing the final track's English translation. I know someone has a fic on here called Osorezan, and that it's the English translation for the first three tracks, but it doesn't have the last one. I reaaaaallllly want to know how it ends. I think that hao-addict was the one doing the translation, but there are only the first three tracks translated there as well…sigh. So now I'm going to get down on my knees and beg. If anyone knows were I can find a translation of the last track of the Osorezan CD, please, PLEASE tell me! Okay, and now I would like to apologize to all who have no idea what I'm talking about. The CD is actually a drama in which Anna and Yoh first meet, and Matamune is in it, so…yeah. Oh, and by the way, I think that this may be a little longer than 20 chapters. Did I already tell you this? Oh well, if I didn't, I'll tell you again. It turns out I was wrong in assuming how many chapters I would write yet again. I can never guess the right amount of chapters I'm going to write…

Thank You To: HAO-Addictive, Kiva Kyoyama, Miss Remedy, LonelyLittleWolf, yo wuz up, Danny, MaiValentinefan, Andrea Nefisto, Hannah, KaZuYa MiNeKuRA, glitter galz, Firebane5, DarkPisces33, ChibiAnz3, megumi13, haoxivy 4 eva, sUppI, and Strawberry.

Special thanks to my beloved flamer D: (Lyserg Must Die). You're too sweet. Hugs D: (if anyone is wondering what this is about just check my reviews and read D: latest flame.)

To DarkPisces33: I have one sibling: my little brother Jordan. He is 11, but he acts so much more mature than I do…scary…I think he is like Hao, and is on a third or fourth incarnation. He just seems so much older than he should. I have two pets: my beloved Sassy, and darling Sneak. Sassy is a purebred Dalmatian who is about the same age as my brother. She's getting pretty old, but she still chases after balls and Frisbees. Sneak's mother was a purebred collie. I taught her a lot of tricks. She can sit, roll over, walk on two legs, dance, shake, stay, and other things too. Right now I'm trying to teach her to bow. It's coming along pretty well. I also have three hermit crabs that are technically Jordan's, but he doesn't take care of them, so they belong to me by default. Their names are Bob, Moe, and Houdini. I think that's enough about me for now. So sorry to hear about your acid reflex. A few of my friends have it, and they say it's awful.

To megumi13: So sorry, but I have no idea how to work DA. I was thinking about getting an account on there over the summer, but it never happened, so I have no idea how to use it. You know, that's annoying not knowing something. I'll have to learn how to use it sometime. I'd really like to see your pics though. I LOVE fanart. If I were you, I'd ask Shamanbabe, LisaTheHedgehog, or Hannah. Hannah's email can be found on her DA homepage: http / jingle360 dot deviantart dot com/ for the other two, their emails can be found on their profiles on ff dot net.

PLEASE REVIEW!

PS: All of those who asked me to email you, I will right after I post this, I promise.


	17. Ivy

Mikau: Hello everyone! I'm back! As usual, I've been extremely overworked. I'm buried in homework, reports, and tests, and I don't see anyway out of any of it. LOLOLOL! As you can see, I'm going insane. Anyway, I have Free today, so I got this finished. I really like this chapter. Well, the first part. It's been awhile since I've been this pleased with my work. I'm definitely a lot more peppy lately. I'm finally getting better! (I've been pretty sick lately.) Anyway, here's the chapter.

**_Disclaimer:_** I do not own Shaman King.

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Ivy

I couldn't sleep. It was three o'clock in the morning, and I couldn't sleep. I laid there for the longest time with my eyes closed praying that I would fall asleep out of sheer boredom of seeing nothing but black. Unfortunately, Lady Luck seemed to be cheating on me, and I couldn't get to sleep. I rolled over on my side to watch the woman sleeping next to me.

I let my hand gently caress her soft face. 'My woman…' She was mine and only mine. 'And pregnant,' A pleased smirk spread over my face. 'with _my _children.' My hand slipped under Ivy's silk nightshirt to run lightly over her rounding stomach.

She hated when I did that. She'd say: "Since when did my stomach become public property! I mean, come on! Perfect strangers come up to me and start feeling my stomach! What the hell!"

She _HATED _it; yet, I _LOVED_ it. I loved feeling them kick and move around. I loved knowing that there was something growing inside of her, and that they were half mine. Just the words "Ivy's pregnant." were enough to make me break out into a huge grin. Sure she was getting more irritable, and she threatened to kill me on more than a few occasions. She yelled a lot and we averaged a few big fights a week, but I never fought back. I took her yelling, and throwing things, and screaming, and shrieking that she hated me for doing this to her. When she was done attacking me, I simply kissed her on the cheek, told her I loved her, and then slept on the couch.

Ah yes, the couch. We got to be good friends over those months. I practically set up camp in the living room because Ivy wouldn't let me anywhere near the bedroom during her seventh month. I went a whole month without se…well…you know. Needless to say, that might have been one of the worst months of my life. That's the worst part of when they're pregnant: when they decide it's your fault that they're miserable, and they make you pay dearly for what you've done. She treated me like a criminal for the entire month. I think that was the month that I started drinking again, but of course I stopped when she let me back in the bedroom.

My other favorite part of Ivy's pregnancy: hot flashes. I think my fingers are still frost bitten. She turned the AC on full blast, so I had to sleep in a parka to keep warm while she slept beside me practically naked (not that I minded that part), and still complained about being hot. The morning sickness was also fun. I came to hate the person who thought up the name "morning" sickness. It's not just in the morning people, it can last all day! It was enough to make _me_ want to throw up.

Another thing that made me sick: how much, and what she ate. God could she eat! And some of that foreign stuff that she made Bill cook for her—like French fries—was disgusting! I still can't believe that some Americans would actually eat that! Who wants to eat shredded potatoes boiled in animal fat and fried in grease! But it was pretty funny when she almost killed me over the last octopus ball. Well, it wasn't exactly funny when it was happening, I can honestly say that I was scared for my life, but it was funny afterwards. Anyway, no matter what she did to me, I always loved her, and I tried to be understanding. After all, I was the one who got her pregnant. I suppose I would be pretty insane if my hormones were all going crazy. She did apologize, and MAN did she know how to apologize…if you know what I mean (insert suggestive look and perverted smile here).

Other than all the little difficulties, I'd have to say the first nine months went well. Anyway, back to the story:

I ran my hand smoothly over her rounding stomach and smiled down at my wife. I couldn't help but smile when I thought about her. Her stomach was getting bigger, but that only seemed to add to her beauty. My thoughts wandered. 'What have I done to you? The great Poison Ivy pregnant? I still can't believe I finally got you. And man I knocked you up good. Triplets…Man I'm good.'

"You're doing it again." A voice hissed in the darkness.

Needless to say I jumped. I hadn't known she was awake. "Doing what?" I tried my best not to sound nervous, but the surprise and anxiousness came out anyway.

Ivy slid one eye slowly open, and then the other. "You know perfectly well what you did. You always do this!" my wife looked childishly up at me and whined.

"I swear, I don't know what you're talking about, Ivy." My heart sped up when she looked up at me tiredly.

"Ooooooooh…Of course you don't." She moaned. I could feel my throat dry as a perverted thought entered my mind.

"You're the one who's doing something. You're pushing my buttons." I placed my hands on either side of her shoulders to hold my weight as I loomed over her.

"Am not…" She tossed her head to the side, practically asking me to attack her exposed neck with my lips. Stretching, she arched her back, knowing full well what I would automatically think of. I could hardly control myself when her fingertips lightly touched the inside of my thigh. "Okay, so maybe now I am."

"Ivy…" I whispered throatily into her ear, undoing the drawstring on my pants at the same time.

"What? What do you want Hao?" She teased me.

"You _know_ what I want. What do you say?"

"Go back to sleep Hao; it's 3:00 in the morning." Ivy lay back down and closed her eyes.

I could feel my ego shatter. 'Did she just turn me down? Can she do that? She can't do that! She's my wife! She's carrying my children! She can't just turn me down so easily like she might any other guy!'

"Oh, but Ivy. I'm much too awake to try and sleep now. Maybe some strenuous physical activity would make me tired enough to sleep?" I casually flipped a stray piece of hair out of her face.

"I am so out of here!" Hane got up from the end of the bed and rushed out of the room. "I'll be in Opacho's room, so come and get me when you're done. I so don't need to see this!"

Ivy sat up in bed and laughed at the little Jack Russell. I could only look at her and smile at her beauty. For a second our eyes met, and she stopped laughing long enough to kiss me. "Sorry for teasing you."

"It's all right. Now, can we stop the teasing and get down to the action? OWWW! God you hit hard! What was that for!" I rubbed my right cheek as it burned bright red in the darkness.

"What am I to you, some form of entertainment when you get bored?" Ivy glared viciously at me as she got out of bed.

"Wait. What! I didn't say anything like that!" I scurried out of bed after her and followed her as she made her way to the door.

"But you were thinking it! That's all I am, isn't it! Something to do when you're bored! Well I'm sick of it!" She pulled a suitcase out of the closet and started packing clothes.

"Ivy! Wait! Please! I really didn't mean anything like that! I love you, I swear!" She glared at me when I tried to kiss her cheek.

"Save Hao. I've heard it before."

"But Ivy! Really, don't you think you're being a little hasty? This isn't something that you would normally do!" 'Actually, this is something she's always done. She's leaving me again…running away…' "Look Ivy, I understand that your hormones are really messed up right now, and that you're not feeling like yourself, but please don't do this to me. I can't stand to lose you again! Don't go!" Got down on my knees and attached myself to her legs.

She was still for a moment, and that made me look up at her to see if maybe she had regained her senses. This happened a lot. She couldn't control it, so I wasn't going to hold it against her. I smiled slightly up at my wife, hoping that she was feeling like herself again.

A blank look adorned her face, and she shoved the suitcase into my arms. "Are you kidding! I'm pregnant! I'm in no condition to travel. I'm not going anywhere."

"Ivy?" I asked hopefully, not sure if she was really _my_ Ivy again. I slowly got to my feet and looked questioningly at her, suitcase still in my hands.

"Get out! I never want to see you again Hao Asakura as long as I live, and after I die too!" She practically shoved me through the doorway.

I understood. She had been packing my clothes… "Ivy…"

"Shut up and get out!" I looked into her eyes and saw hell staring back at me.

"Mistress Ivy?" A small sob came from just outside the doorway. Ivy froze as she looked down at a teary-eyed Opacho. "Why are Master Hao and Ivy fighting again? Hao-sama isn't really gonna l-leave, is he?"

My wife drew in a quick breath and stared horrified at what she was doing. "H-hao!" She broke down in sobs in my arms.

"Shhh…It's okay…I'm right here." I held her as tightly as I could without hurting her. Tears were rolling out of my eyes too.

"Oh my God…Hao! I am soooo sorry! I didn't mean a word of it! I swear I didn't! I don't know what came over me…"

"Hey, it's all right. It's sort of my fault anyway." I kissed her on the forehead and ran a hand over her stomach again.

"You're right; it is your fault I'm like this." Ivy broke away from me and walked back to our bed. "Now I don't feel so badly. Want to sleep in here Opacho?"

"Mmhmm!" Opacho raced for the bed and snuggled up close against Ivy as she lay back down in bed, having no trouble getting back to sleep.

"Hey! Aren't you going to apologize!" I whined, lying down on the other side of Opacho.

"Shh…Not now. Opacho is right here." Ivy shushed me.

"But still! Can't we go to a different room to—"

"Nope. And I'm not apologizing for that until you apologize for this." Ivy ran her hand over her inflating stomach, and I could do naught, but glare at her.

"Good night Ivy. I love you."

"Good night Hao. I love you more." She took my hand in her palm and kissed the tips of my knuckles before placing my palm on her stomach to feel the life inside. I couldn't help but smile proudly knowing that I had something to do with that. I was quite pleased that it was 'my fault'.

_As suddenly as the scene had come, it faded, and I was transported into another memory. One of the best and worst days of my life: December 25 of that year; my daughters' birthday._

I stood in the doorway of the hospital room, a baby in each arm. Ivy was standing by the window, looking out, but seeming so forlorn. A small sigh escaped her lips as she held herself tightly, trying to fight back tears. She didn't know I was watching her. As the sun came up, flooding the room with different colored lights, it illuminated her pale skin, and she gave off a sort of glow. She didn't seem to be seeing anything that she was looking at. She was already too detached from the world to notice.

I managed to sneak up right behind her without her noticing, and I saw the look in her eyes, or lack there of. Her normally bright orbs were dull and void. She looked so…dead.

"I-vy?" I stuttered not knowing if she would answer me.

She jumped at the closeness of my voice. "Hmm?" She blinked several times before actually _seeing_ me, but when she realized it was me, she immediately came back to life. "Oh! So sorry, I was just spacing there for a minute!" A soft chuckle escaped her throat. She looked down at the bundles in my arms. "Hello…"

I set them down in their respective bassinettes so that she could look at them better. "Hoshi…and Thorn." I indicated each one as I set them down gently.

Ivy smiled softly down as she lightly ran her fingers over their little ones. "I still can't believe it…I'm a mother. Kind of scary…but they're so beautiful…" She was crying again. I instinctively put an arm around her and held her close. I tried not to jump at the iciness of her touch, but I couldn't help it. "Sorry." She moved away, back to the window.

"No…It's my fault." I pulled her into a gentle kiss.

"No, it's not. I'm sorry, but this is so awkward." She pulled away again, a dead look over taking her for a second time.

"Ivy, are you feeling all right?" She didn't answer. It was almost like she didn't hear me. "Ivy?"

"I'm sorry; what?"

I patiently repeated my question, but even though she was looking at me, she didn't answer. "Ivy!" I placed hand on her cheek and desperately searched her eyes for a sign of life.

She blinked again, and her eyes brightened, but they took a lot longer to focus than last time. A few tears slipped from my eyes. I was slowly losing her. "I'm sorry. I heard you, I just…didn't…answer…immediately." Her speech pattern slowed and her eyes seemed to wander away from mine. "I really am okay though." She suddenly jerked back to me.

I knew what I had to do, but it would be hard: especially on me. "Ivy…don't feel like you have to stay."

"What! Why would I not stay! I have to! I…I…why Hao?" She slowly slipped into my embrace.

"You're not doing well here. Maybe you should talk to Michael, or Raphael, or maybe even Gabriel? I'm pretty sure that they will know what to do. It's okay if…you…have to l-leave." I held her tighter and ignored the chills down my spine.

"I feel so…distant, I guess. I really want to stay, but…everything is getting duller by the second. I'm scared that it will all dissolve into black and white if I keep looking. I want to stay with you and our daughters, but…" She stopped and seemed to get lost in her thoughts. "Hao? Do babies' souls get into Heaven?" Suddenly I knew what she had been thinking about before when she was looking out the window.

"Ivy…It's not your fault. There was nothing anyone could do." I tried to comfort her.

"Please answer the question." She closed her eyes and wrapped her arms around my neck, burying her face in my chest.

"I'm sure they do." I sighed, giving in to her request.

"Excuse me, Mr. Asakura?" A redheaded nurse stepped hesitantly into the room.

"Yes?"

"We need a name to put on the death certificate. I'm terribly sorry to bother you." She walked slowly toward me, as if she were frightened of what I might do to her.

"Yes, thank you."

"Akeno." Ivy sighed clearly depressed at naming the child. "I've always liked that name."

"Akeno?" I repeated. "Yes…I like that name. Akeno."

"A-K-E-N-O?" The nurse asked as she scribbled.

Ivy nodded. "Yes." I answered for my wife.

"Thank you Mr. Asakura. And again, I'm so very sorry." The nurse bowed her head politely, but scurried out of the room as fast as she could.

"So what now?" Ivy hugged me tighter.

"Do whatever you think is best for yourself." I whispered. It was the hardest thing to do: tell her to do something for herself. It was difficult to not be selfish and ask her to stay for me.

"But what about you?" She completely ignored my selflessness and thought of me anyway.

"I'll just have to learn to adjust. It's not like we'll never see each other again. Someday we'll…I mean we have to, don't we?" I held her close and ignored the cold feel of her.

"Well, of course we'll see each other. I couldn't live without you…thought that's sort of weird for me to say giving my current condition…I need you. I don't want to go anywhere." Ivy subconsciously played with a strand of my hair, twirling it around her fingers.

"It'll be fine. We just both have to learn to get over it…we have to move on…" My voice shook at the words. I didn't want to 'move on', but if she knew that, she would be less likely to do the right thing for herself and leave.

"You are so full of it, you know." I looked down at her as she smiled and cried at the same time. "You don't want me to go, and I don't want to go either. I'd like to stay with you and our daughters, but I really can't do that now can I?" I was about to answer her, but she placed a finger over my lips silencing me.

"Hush…I'm not done. I know that you don't want me to go, but you want what's best for me. It's only been a couple of hours, and I'm already falling apart…what will a couple of years do to me? I'm best off going to Mike, Raph, and Gabe and asking them what to do, but I know what they're going to say. They can't help me anymore than they already have. Another place I could go for help would be to Lucifer, but we all know what he'll try to do. I suppose the best thing to do would just be to go. I'm no use to you or the girls now, anyway. I'll be back though; whenever I find a way, I'll come back to you." Ivy smiled bravely up at me through her tears.

"I'll hold you to that." I kissed her one last time, dreading letting her go.

"You had better." She hugged me tight, thinking along the same lines as I was. "I don't want this to be the last time that you ever hold me like this."

"I promise it won't be. I love you Ivy."

"I love you too Hao." And she was gone.

My entire body hurt. It felt like little knives had pushed their way into my every pore. It burned; I was being burnt alive. I couldn't move, couldn't scream, and couldn't make the pain go away. It hurt. I could feel myself waking up, but that only made the pain in my head increase. It felt like a time bomb had exploded in my brain. My eyes slowly opened but I couldn't see anything. Everything was out of focus.

I blinked a few times, and the room came into view. "Uhhhhh…" I moaned, finally able to stretch a little, but most of my body refused to respond. Being unable to move, I took in my surroundings: Opacho was stationed asleep on the seat under the window, and Luca was on the floor in the corner next to him. Luca was covered in comfy looking blankets and pillows. Also on the floor, at the foot of my bed, Mari and Macchi were snuggling together for warmth. Yoh and Anna were sharing and armchair pushed up against the wall to the right side of my bed. She lay with her head on his chest, and his arms wrapped securely around her, keeping her warm. They reminded me of Ivy and myself. Across the room, a couple of feet away from Mari and Macchi, there were two more armchairs sort of pushed together. In one, Thorn and Hana slept in a rather compromising position because of their close proximity. It was a good thing he was her cousin, or else I would have severe objections. Hoshi, on the other hand, was on top of some strange, gothicly dressed, pointy-violet-blue-haired boy that looked shockingly like Yoh's old buddy Ren. I would later learn that this boy was Akira, Ren's son, and that that had been his first night staying in the room. Akira's head and one of his hands rested on top of Thorn in the chair next to him.

On the foot of my bed was a small Jack Russell Terrier puppy. Hane was sound asleep. Next to me, sleeping in a chair, but with most of her upper body on the bed, was Valerie. She had re-dyed her hair silver, but it seemed to have grown quite a bit. It now looked like it would go down to her upper thighs. The woman looked like she wasn't sleeping well. She moaned softly, and squirmed listlessly, repositioning herself. 'No wonder I can't move my arm. She's using it as a pillow.' I thought to myself as I tried to wake my sleeping arm.

"Mm Hao…" The silver-haired angel sighed in her sleep.

'Well, well, well…What are you dreaming about me? Funny the way you refuse me, and then have such dreams about me.' I smirked mentally, since I was unable to do it physically.

"…you are such an idiot…" She finished.

I would have fallen over anime-style, but, as I've already stated, I was unable to move. I mentally pouted. 'Maybe I'm losing my touch with the ladies? Impossible! I'll have to take a survey later with the Hanagumi.' I tried to get up, but my muscles were too stiff, so they gave out on me.

My slight movement was enough to disturb the sleep of the woman next to me. "Uhh…" She groaned, dreading the coming of consciousness. She sat up, finally removing the weight from my arm. She stretched a little, and then her eyes fell upon me. I had closed my eyes and pretended to still be asleep. "Hao? Can you hear me?" She leaned in close and whispered in my ear. "I know you can. Do you know who I am? Do you remember my voice? It's been so long…"

For a moment she sounded exactly like Ivy. Valerie had a deeper voice than Ivy, but now as Valerie whispered into my ear, she used Ivy's voice.

"Please wake up. We're all so worried, and we miss you…I miss you. I've missed you for years. Why don't you recognize me? Can't you see through my colorful disguise? My heart is breaking Hao, and I'm just about ready to give up. Maybe…I should just leave now. It would be less painful for the both of us. Why can't I just tell you? Maybe I'm scared…maybe I'm afraid you won't want me anymore when you find out…I don't know why I can't just say what I want to say. I want to tell you who I really am, but Thorn wouldn't like it, and Hoshi would be mad at me for lying, and you…well, I don't know what you would think. I just want you to love me again…"

I didn't understand what she was talking about, but I knew that I wasn't intended to hear what she was saying. I lay still and pretended to be asleep. 'She sounds so much like her…could it be that she's really…No. She can't be…'

Warm tears fell from her face onto mine. It slivered down my face until it came to rest upon my lips. It started to rain outside.

'Ivy…maybe…maybe I'm just crazy like Faust for Eliza. Maybe I'm just imagining this whole thing.' A cold hand gently brushed at my cheeks. My eyes snapped open, startling her.

"H-Hao!" A panicked whisper met my ears. "When did you wake up!"

"Right at the part where you confessed your secret desires to sleep with me." I mustered up enough energy to wink teasingly at her.

She looked like she wanted to slap me, but something kept her from carrying out that plan of action. "I can't believe you have the strength to makes such comments." She glowered.

"Sorry, but comments are all I can give you at the moment. I'm too exhausted to move very much, so I'm afraid I wouldn't be much fun in bed at the moment." I smirked back at her, regaining more and more strength by the second.

"Perverted bastard." She reverted to her old pet name for me.

"Oh, come on. Haven't you come up with anything better to insult me with in the past sixteen years?"

"W-what? Did you say?" Her voice shook as she looked deeply in my eyes. She looked confused and a little scared.

Then I realized what I had done. 'Hao, get over it; she's not Ivy.' "I'm sorry. My wife used to call me that all the time, and now I…I'm sorry, I think I'm still half-asleep."

"Oh." Small tears returned to her eyes, but a smile lit up her face. "I see…well, I'm glad you're alive to be a perverted bastard." She placed a short kiss on my cheek.

"And why would that be?" I tried to sit up since I felt strong enough. "What happened to me?"

"Hao, you're in the hospital…for alcohol poisoning. Do you remember anything?" Valerie stared somberly into my eyes, gently caressing my cheek.

My hand rested on top of hers, and I cursed lightly under my breath. "Damn it! God, I am such an idiot…"

"Shhh…don't beat yourself up about it. The only thing you can do about it now is to give up drinking." She advised.

"How the hell am I suppose to do that? It's what I do when I'm depressed." I looked skeptically at the chemist. I had tried to stop so many times before, but as soon as I felt badly, I would become incoherently drunk.

"I bet Anna could make you stop." Valerie giggled lightly and looked away as if she were remembering something.

"Oh really? Why do you say that?"

"She made me stop my bad habits." Valerie smiled encouragingly.

I looked skeptically at her. "And what 'bad habits' did you have?"

"Cutting." She replied levelly, easily admitting to it.

I looked dazed at her, unable to believe my ears. "You?" She nodded with a smile. "Why?"

"Because. I was partially out of my mind with grief, so it didn't seem to matter…I don't bleed easily, and it didn't hurt…It was a way to relieve stress. I'd usually cut my thighs. I've never liked my thighs, and it was a place I could easily hide from others. I usually wore boots anyway, so no one noticed. Sometimes I would cut the upper part of my arms and wear long-sleeved shirts. God, I must sound awful…Sorry." She laughed it off and looked away.

"No, actually…you didn't really say _why_ you were depressed." I lifted my hand to her cheek and brushed away the silent tears that had been falling.

"I left my husband. After my son died… I was convinced that there was something I could have done, but…I don't know…I don't want to talk about it." Valerie turned away from me.

"I'm sorry to hear that. I lost a son too." 'Akeno…' Ivy had been a complete wreck…I could easily see Valerie acting the same way.

"I'm sorry…" Valerie sighed and looked back at me. "Anyway, enough about that. I'm really in no mood…" A kinky grin returned to the girl's face.

"Then how did you stop?" I returned to the previous topic of conversation.

"Hmm? Oh! Yes, cutting…Anna found out. I'm not really sure how she did, but Anna just seems to know these things. She sort of beat it out of me. Tough love, you know? Now when I'm depressed or just a little down in the dumps I go down to the lab and blow something up. Not a huge explosion, but just something small. Some metals spontaneously burst into flames when they're exposed to air. Others react really violently with water. Just a few drops of the wrong element mixed with something else, and KABOOM! It's really quite fun, and great stress relief. I find other things to do instead of hurting myself."

"So you're suggesting I blow things up for fun? Man, it's been awhile since I've done that. Now I really want to go light something on fire." I smiled maniacally at the woman next to me.

"Hey, don't go all pyro on me." She teased.

"Too late."

"Maybe you should try chewing gum instead. I've heard that that works for smoking." Valerie offered.

"Or I could start smoking." I muttered.

I winced as she smacked me lightly. "No."

"Just kidding. God you still hit hard."

"What!" The green-eyed woman scrunched her brow at me.

"Uh…I said you hit hard." I covered.

"You said 'still'." She left the question unasked: 'What did you mean?'

"Did I?"

"If you didn't, then I'm hearing things." Two confused looking dark green eyes burnt holes into mine.

"You have really beautiful eyes, you know. Did you have another lab explosion?" I tried to avert her attention.

"As a matter of fact, I did. I was mixing some highly reactive chemicals when Thorn called me to say that you were dying of alcohol poisoning. I accidentally poured the whole bottle of fluorine into the concoction instead of just a few drops. It dyed my hair back to silver and my eyes dark green."

"Dying?" A slow whisper barely escaped my throat.

"Yes, Hao. DYING. If Faust and I had gotten there even a few minutes later…Hao, you stopped breathing, and you were turning blue. Your skin was freezing—even colder than mine! You needed a new liver, a new pancreas, and some other organs. The lining of your esophagus was damaged pretty badly along with the lining of your stomach. There wasn't enough time to find a donor, so I had to clone new organs from Yoh's. I added some chemicals to make them grow faster, but they just barely made it in time. There wasn't really time to do an actual surgery, so Faust had to do what he did to Manta when Yoh and he had first met Faust. It was a little messy, but it seems to have worked. Oh God, I'm just glad you're okay!" Valerie buried her face into my chest, sobbing her heart out.

"All this because I had a little too much to drink?" I held her close as she cuddled up next to me on the bed. I let her rest her head on my chest, and we lay there with our arms around each other. "I promise you, I'm quitting. I swear that I'm never going to drink again."

"That's really sweet, but sweet doesn't mean anything if you go back on your promise and die for it." Her words cut me deeply.

"You don't think I can do it?" I raised an eyebrow.

"No, I think you're more than capable of stopping, but the question is, _will_ you?" More tears fell silently from her eyes.

"I can make him stop." A foreign voice entered our conversation, causing us to jump.

I tried to act cool as I replied. "Well, hello Anna. What are you doing here on such a fine night?"

"Cut the crap Hao. You really scared everyone, and as you may have guessed, sleeping like this for three nights is very uncomfortable."

"Actually, you look pretty cozy sleeping on top of my otouto like that." I smirked evilly.

"Hao…" Valerie's eyes begged me to let Anna speak.

I sighed dramatically before giving in. "All right Anna, let's hear it. How are you going to make me give up drinking?"

"As soon as they let you out of here, you'll be moving in to Funbari Onsen until you break your drinking habits. It's as simple as that." My sister-in-law smiled a teasing grin.

"What! You mean you want him to move in with us!" Valerie looked panicky at her cousin.

"Yep. He can bring along the girls if he wants, but I'm not taking no for an answer. I never have before, so I'm not starting to now. What do you say Hao?" Anna wasn't one to be messed with, so I had no choice.

"Fine. The three of us will move in with you as soon as I get out of here." That seemed to satisfy her, and she went back to sleep.

"I guess we'll be seeing quite a lot of each other from now on." Valerie looked nervously at me.

"Is that a problem?" I smoothed her hair.

"No…It'll be fun living with you and the girls." Valerie smiled reassuringly, though I think it was more for her benefit than mine.

"Good…Hey, just how long have I been here anyway?" I closed my eyes and tried to fall asleep.

"Well, it's about three thirty on Wednesday morning, and they brought you in about twelve noon on Sunday, so you've been unconscious for nearly three days." She too tried to get some sleep.

My eyes snapped open. 'THREE DAYS!' "I guess I missed our date." I answered coolly.

"Yeah, you did." She giggled warmly.

"Can I make it up to you?"

Valerie tried to contain her laughter. "Maaaaaybe."

"If they let me out of here today, do you want to go somewhere tonight?" I closed my eyes and whispered huskily in her ear.

"Wednesday night? I don't think I'm doing anything. I'd love to."

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Mikau: So? What do you think? Did everyone get that Hao was dreaming (again) for the first two parts? Yeah, I couldn't help but put that in there. Maybe that will shed a few shreds of light on the various puzzles of this story. Actually I had Anna read Torn By Thorns, and she told me her theories of the many puzzles of TBT, and I was really surprised at how far off from the truth she was. When I told her what I had really intended for the plot twists and the plot line in general, she said she hadn't even thought of that. Now I can't help but think that I'm seriously misleading you with Ivy's motives and stuff…I seem to have a lot of explaining to do in up coming chapters. Well, one last thing: I really love the name Akeno. Isn't so cute! Ahem…yeah. Sorry for the babbling. .o

Thanks To: yo wuz up, ChibiKitsune, ChibiAzn3, KaZuYA MiNeKuRa, glitter galz, Hemila-Rose, haoxivy 4 eva, y0ur-w0rstnightmARee, megumi13, HAO-Addictive, Firebane5, Kiva Kyoyama, MaiValentinefan, DarkPisces33, and yeke.

To DarkPisces33: My brother hates Yoh, so he always bashes Yoh. I get really mad because I like Hao and Yoh equally (even if I did pair Ivy with Hao. You know, before I started writing I,SR I had intended to pair Ivy with Yoh. I actually decided to pair her with Hao after I wrote the first chapter.), and I really hate when Jordan trashes my Yoh-koi. It would be cool to have so many pets, but I only have my dogs and my crabs. Actually, I have an unofficial cat named Sugary Ginger Snaps. She comes to my house once a month and I feed her. She's a street cat that doesn't really 'belong' belong to me. My favorite singer at the moment is wither Megumi Hayashibara, Yuuko Satou, or Ayumi Hamasaki. (Megumi played Anna in the Japanese SK, and Yuuko played Yoh. Ayumi is just really good, but she doesn't really have anything to do with SK.) Those are my favorite Japanese singers. My fav American groups are the Killers, The Goo Goo Dolls, and 3 Doors Down. My favorite food is…hmm what is my favorite food? I really like white rice, California rolls (it's sushi), and ramen, but I also love jello. Come to think of it, I'm obsessed with Pocky, but I haven't had any in a loooong time. I could live off of peanut butter too…well, as long as I had some celery. Okay, now I'm really hungry. I'm going to post this and go get some food from the cafeteria.

PLEASE REVIEW!


	18. Girls and Flowers

Mikau: Hello everyone. Sorry for taking so long getting this chapter up; it's been ready since Friday night, but I got sick, and now I feel really badly, and I didn't even touch a computer on Saturday. I won't be responding to reviews this chapter. So, so sorry! Gomen nasai! I just feel way too sick. I really am sorry…cowers in fear of reviewers like frightened puppy.

**_Disclaimer:_** I don't own Shaman King.

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Girls and Flowers

I woke up the next morning feeling so stiff. I had been at the hospital one night, and now I felt like my entire body was made out of lead. My eyes opened, slowly adjusting to the bright white walls of the room. A woman was lying on top of me, her hands some most inappropriate places. Even if I was 18, my mother would not approve. 'Hoshi.' Her name came back to me, echoing in the halls of my memory.

Surely this slut couldn't be the same Hoshi that I had fallen in love with at the dance, could it? Sure she was gorgeous, but she made me uncomfortable. Hundreds, if not, thousands of men had had their way with her, or maybe it was the other way around? Was she the one having her way with them? It didn't matter, what did matter, was that she couldn't be _my_ Hoshi. _My_ Hoshi was a blushing virgin. Had I not stolen her first kiss? Hoshi Asakura had been messing around with men for years, and was an experienced woman. There was no way that my Hoshi and this woman were one and the same.

Since Hoshi was a pretty uncommon name, I could only think that my girl had lied to me. 'Yes, I remember! She hesitated when telling me her name. She must have lied. Just like how I gave her my father's name instead of my own…' I mentally slapped myself for my idiocy. 'I'll have to email her later and find out.'

I pulled her email address out of my pocket. I didn't know why, but I carried it with me wherever I went. 'ThornsOfABriarRose at SK dot com.' She had occupied my thoughts the past few days. Dancing with her, our conversation, the kiss…_Oh_ the kiss… I could almost taste her lips upon mine when I closed my eyes. She was taking over my every waking moment, and most of my dreaming ones too. She was intoxicating in that way. I was getting sort of obsessed with her, speculating about what she looked like under that mask, what her real name was, if she had any feelings for me. I thought about where she went to school, what kinds of pets she had, if she had a boyfriend, what her phone number was, what our kids would look like, what she would look like without clothes on, and after that, my thoughts were of a more sexual nature.

I had to talk to her again. I had to know. I wanted to get to know her; I wanted to maybe even date her. She made me feel so differently than other women. I could talk about myself with her and know that she'd understand. I had to email her. Only then would I know. I tried to reach for my laptop down at my feet, but Thorn's sister was still asleep on top of me, and I couldn't reach it without disturbing her. 'Chikusho.' I cursed.

I slowly drifted back to sleep, only to wake a few hours later as someone jumped off of me, relieving the great weight that had been holding me down.

"OH MY GOD! DAD!" Hoshi screamed as she raced to her father's bedside. Thorn soon joined her sister screaming and yelling and both of them bawling. It was quite comical to watch both girls sobbing and hanging all over their father. It was hard to decipher a thing that they were saying; Hoshi and Thorn both yelled at Hao at the same time, screaming different things. Occasionally I heard Hao apologize or promise to quit drinking. A few other comments were mixed in as Luca, Opacho, Mari and Macchi, and Yoh woke up to yell at Hao and thank God that he was still alive.

I sat on the sidelines next to Hana and watched the female Asakura twins quietly. Thorn was so different from her sister…I couldn't help but notice Hoshi's obvious sex appeal. The older twin flaunted her perfectly shaped chest and sculpted body, whereas Thorn had a less womanly allure. Thorn didn't know she was attractive to men. She didn't know how to tease a man properly. She had no idea what she was doing when it came to the opposite sex. She was too innocent for her age.

'Aw man, I'd like to strip her of that innocence.' My cheeks flushed as I realized what I had just thought. 'Where did that come from!' I panicked and started to tear my eyes away from Thorn. Just as I was looking away, she leaned forward, and I got a great view down her skimpy spaghetti strap nightgown top. She wasn't wearing a bra. My breathing sped up and my eyes widened. I swallowed hard and I instinctively gripped the arms of the chair. I let my mouth hang open, and I think I started drooling. I couldn't take my eyes off of her. Soon, mountains of dirty thoughts started to flow through my head. I couldn't help my thoughts or behavior as my testosterone levels skyrocketed.

Hana turned towards me and smiled wickedly. He must have noticed my lustful looks at his cousin. I was too preoccupied with Thorn to notice as he crept up close and whispered in my ear. "_Oooh _GOD. I just want to tackle her to the floor, tear off all her clothes with my teeth, and rape her."

"_Yeah…"_ I whispered back huskily, no longer able to control my body. I didn't realized what I had said until it was too late.

Hana dragged me out into the hallway and took me down the hall a bit to stand by the vending machine. "Ha! I knew it! I knew you liked her!" He accused enthusiastically. "Get all those dirty thoughts of my cousin out of your head you sick bastard!" Hana pushed me up against the wall playfully and punched my shoulder.

"NO! I didn't mean a word of it! You're putting words in my mouth, Asakura!" I raised my hands in defense as I tried pitifully to deflect his accusations.

"Aww, come on Akira, I know what I saw. I saw where you were staring." Hana smiled suggestively at me. There was no way to beat him.

"No, no, no! You have it all wrong!" I tried walking away from him, but he followed me down the hallway.

"Then you weren't looking down her shirt? Because I know I was, and I'll tell you, you missed a good show. Wow…that's pretty gentlemanly of you. Wait…you know, a normal teenage guy that had seen a girl naked before would have no problem looking down a girl's shirt. That means…!" He paused dramatically, waiting for the tension to make me confess.

"Oh stop it! You know, some guys don't get lucky with girls like you do!" I glared at my younger friend. I couldn't describe how jealous I was that he was a year younger, but he had gotten more action with the ladies than anyone else I knew.

"Akira!" Hana mock-gasped. "Does this mean you're still a…a…oh, I can't say it! It's just too horrible to imagine!" The little drama queen fell to his knees and reeled back in utter horror.

"Oh shut up you bastard. Have you ever considered that some people wait until marriage!" I was thoroughly red in the face by now, talking about such a subject with someone so experienced when I hadn't even gotten past kissing.

Hana broke out in peals of laughter and a lazy grin returned to his face. "Chill, I'm still one too."

"Don't lie to try and make me feel better. I've seen tons of girls drag you off to various bedrooms during parties." A cold expressionless glare highlighted my face.

"Well yeah, but I've never gone all the way with anyone." He replied seriously. I had no choice but to believe him. He wouldn't lie. Hana never lied.

"Fine." I turned away from him, and was about to go back to the room, but curiosity stopped me. "So…_have_ you ever seen a girl naked? Or better yet, has one ever seen you?"

A cute, boyish smirk adorned his face. Sometimes he looked too innocent to be such a womanizer. He truly was a mix of his father and uncle's personalities. The smile was the only answer I got so I was left to assume that 1: 'Yes.' He had seen plenty of women, 2: 'Yes.' Plenty had seen him, and 3: 'Sometimes these two actions had happened at the same time.' Meaning that—yes—Hana Asakura had gotten further with more women then I could ever hope to get with one.

"I hate you so much right now." A low growl escaped my throat.

"Most men with girlfriends do." I found myself wondering how a person who looked so innocent could be so…so…was there even a word for it? 'Asakura.' That's what I decided to call it. He was so Asakura. All men of that clan were natural playas and women magnets. 'Why can't the Taos be like that? No! I had to get stuck with the bloodthirsty, power-hungry clan instead of the sexy ones! No wonder the Taos hated the Asakuras so much.

"Anyway, the whole point of this conversation was supposed to be that you actually do like Thorn don't you?" Hana changed topics slightly so that the subject of conversation was less perverted. "Sorry about the whole side tracked, teasing bit." The Asakura leaned up against the soda machine and put some change into the slot.

"I'm not forgiving you." I mumbled grouchily. "But about Thorn, that was nothing. My hormones took control of me for a brief second, and I was acting purely on testosterone." I paused to look uncertainly at my best friend since childhood. "That can happen right? It doesn't mean I'm in love with her or anything does it?" I showed a scared, more naïve side of me for a moment.

"Of course. It's only natural for guys our age. That can happen sometimes and there's nothing you can do about it." Hana shrugged casually and picked up his orange soda.

"Oh good…even to you?" I leaned up against the whitewashed wall of the hospital hallway.

"Yeah, even to me. Akira, we're guys, we're allowed to act like complete hormonal jerks sometimes." His bright smile as he opened the can reassured me that I wasn't losing my mind.

"So just because I really enjoyed looking down her shirt and having dirty thoughts about her doesn't mean I'm in love with her?" I relied on my friend heavily for consul.

"No, you're not in love; you just have the hots for her is all. Hey, is that why you're always so grouchy around her; do your leather pants get too tight?" Hana took a playful poke at me, but caused more anger than it was worth.

"Tread lightly Asakura, you're on thin ice with me." I growled.

"Uh-hehehe…right." Hana rubbed nervously at the back of his neck, smiling sheepishly at me. "What I meant to say was that it doesn't mean you're in love, but it does mean that you're a horny pervert."

I resisted the urge to slap him. "Thank. You. Hana. Well, that's certainly a good thing because I think I'm in love with someone else." I handed him some change to get me a soda as well.

"What's her name?—Orange or grape?" Hana continued lazily leaning up against the machine as he inserted the coins.

"I think it's Hoshi. At least that's what she told me, but I'm not sure—Do they have peach?" I drew my knees to my chest and rested my head on the tops of my knees.

A disapproving look grazed Hana's face "Hoshi! You mean my other cousin!—They don't have Peach. It's orange, grape, strawberry, or watermelon."

"Nah, not your cousin, some other girl. The one you were dancing with.—Do they sell milk?" I shifted uneasily, sitting against the wall was uncomfortable for my back.

"Which girl? I danced with hundreds.—No, no milk. They only have soda, but if you want, I could get you coffee?" It amazed me how we were able to keep two conversations straight for so long.

"You know, the girl you were practically making love to! You wouldn't let anyone else dance with her until that Dao Lian guy came.—No, I don't like coffee; what were the flavors of soda again?"

"Oh yeah! That son of a gun stole my dance partner!" He paused, and remembering what I had said, "And I wasn't 'practically making love to her.' WAIT. You like THAT one!—Orange, grape, strawberry, watermelon, and peach."

"No, I'm in love with her. I was sort of Dao Lian…I didn't want anyone to know who I actually was, so I gave her the wrong name, and I think she gave me a pseudonym too. You have to help me! I need to meet her! I've fallen for her Hana!—I thought you said that there wasn't peach?" I switched from begging for his help to yelling at him.

"Stay away from her Akira. She's already taken! She's mine! I swear, if I hear you've been hitting on her I will have to ring your neck!—Sorry, did I say peach? I think they're out of peach." My friend was threatening to kill me over a girl one minute, and apologizing about soda flavors the next.

"She didn't tell me that she had a boyfriend. Since when did she become _yours_?—Just see if there's any peach left." I glared.

"Look Akira, just do as I say on this one. I don't want you messing with my girl. I saw her first. You can have any other girl than that one.—Will you look at that! There was peach soda left!" Hana happily handed over the peach flavored drink.

"Fine. She'd probably rather have you anyway. You don't have any objection to me emailing her do you?—Thanks." I took the soda from him and popped the tab open.

"I suppose you can email her, just nothing more.—You're welcome." Hana casually moved over to where I was sitting, and leaned up against the wall, standing right next to me. He took a small sip of his orange beverage.

"Hey, Hana? Could you give me lessons?" I took a drink of my own soda.

His answer came slowly. "What kind of lessons?"

"You know, how to do what you do with girls. You're so good…I'd like to know how you do it." We didn't look at each other as we talked. I'm not sure why; maybe just because it made us seem cooler than we actually were: standing there having a tough, manly conversation, not needing to look at each other to know what the other's face showed.

"Oh, like how to attract women? All right. I could easily do that now with all the cute nurses running around." Hana broke the 'cool-guy tradition' by looking at me and smiling.

"Great, but first I have a question." I gazed steadily at his face out of the corner of my eye.

"Hmm?" He took a quick drink of soda.

"Do you like Thorn?" Hana gagged on the liquid going down his throat, and coughed several times before he was able to speak.

"No! I mean, she's my cousin! That's just sick…isn't it?" Hana looked questioningly in my general direction, but not all the way down to the floor at me.

"Well yeah, that would be incest, but by what you said before about her—you know, when we were in the room and I was staring at her…about tackling her and her clothes and stuff?—well, you really seemed like you meant it…" I half looked at him, but my gaze was focused more away from his face than anything. In truth, I would have no problem if he had such fierce romantic feelings for his cousin. They had just met, so it wasn't like they had grown up together. She would have been just any other girl to Hana if she didn't share his last name. Actually, they were quite cute together, in my opinion.

"Of course not! That would be gross! I mean, she _is _my cousin after all…" He sort of trailed off, not knowing how to go on deigning any feelings that he might or might not have had for Thorn. "I mean, sure she's pretty, and she's not a ditz like some girls, and she's really nice, and she's got an amazing personality, and she's definitely got a body, and her eyes—did you notice how pretty her eyes are?—oh, and she's—"

Hana continued to babble on and on about his cousin, and I was forced to decided that he was, in fact, in love with her. Not just some crush or a minor case of puppy love, he was in love, and he had it bad. I also decided not to judge him because I could definitely see where he was coming from. She was pretty great, but I was still in love with my girl. My 'Hoshi'.

"—but anyway, she's my cousin, so NO I do NOT like her like that. So, Akira, pick any girl." I had stopped listening to Hana's babbling, so the mention of my name startled me.

"I'm sorry, what?" I snapped back to attention.

"You said you wanted some courting lessons, so pick any girl." It sounded more like he was challenging me, silently making a bet that he could seduce any girl in the entire joint.

Of course this irritated me. 'Who does he think he is!…The son of the Shaman King…right.' I looked around, trying to find a girl that wouldn't easily give in to him. I spotted the perfect one: a shorter blonde girl with soft grey eyes. She looked like the kind of girl that would be too shy to talk to men. "_ANY_ girl, Hana?"

"_ANY_ girl, Akira." He confirmed in such a mocking way. I felt the need to hit him.

"That one." I indicated the nervous looking, shy girl walking down the hall towards us.

"That one?" Hana gave her an evaluating glance and smiled. That was when I realized I had picked the wrong girl. "No problem. Hold my soda, and just go along with what I say." He handed me the soda, and started talking like he was telling a story or something. Hana used his arms to gesture emphatically, and I wondered where he was going with this. "So then this girl, she just comes up to me and she says—" He stepped back. Right into the way of the little blonde nurse. He had timed it perfectly so that she wouldn't be able to stop in time.

She fell over and the papers in her arms went flying. The woman fell forward right on top of Hana, and he sort of caught her in his arms to cushion her fall. The little nurse just lay on top of Hana for a moment, not able to figure out what had just happened to her.

"Uhhh…hi." Hana pretended to be completely entranced by her.

His words broke the spell of confusion over her, and she jumped off of him. "I am so sorry! I wasn't watching where I was going, and I—I didn't mean to….to fall on top of you like that!" She looked away from him, blushing.

Hana remained on the ground sitting. Most likely looking up her tight-fitting, white, mini-skirt. "No, it was totally my fault." He picked up all the papers scattered on the ground, and stacked them in a neat pile. The Asakura stood and handed the papers to the blonde. "I'm really sorry about that. I'm the one who wasn't watching where I was going. Um…Hana Asakura…" He held out a hand for her to shake.

She hesitantly placed her hand in his. "Wendy Gale…" She blushed as he raised her hand to his lips and gently placed a ghost of a kiss on her hand. "It's really nice to meet you Mr. Asakura. Do you have family here?"

"Please, call me Hana, and yes, my father's here. Asakura Hao, room 366. Ever since my mother died he's been drunk constantly; he finally gave himself alcohol poisoning. I thought he was going to die, but it seems he'll be fine. He said that he's going to stop drinking, so maybe he'll stop beating me now that he's sober." My best friend lied to the pretty nurse.

"He beats you?" Wendy shrieked in horror.

"Oh! Did I say that? I'm sorry, I probably shouldn't have. It's not his fault after all; he's a really great father when he's not drunk. He actually feeds me sometimes." Hana tried to reassure her.

Wendy's eyes widened. "You mean he doesn't feed you!"

"Well one day when he was drunk, he sort of ordered the servants to not feed me. Shoot…that didn't come out right. I mean…you know I have no idea what I mean. I really don't talk to pretty girls often, and I'm sort of really nervous right now." I don't know how he did it, but Hana faked a blush.

The pretty blonde blushed bright red. "You think I'm pretty?"

"Well, yeah…actually you're gorgeous…but you probably want to get back to work, and I'm in your way. Sorry…" He stepped out of her way and smiled sheepishly.

"Oh, no…I…here…" She blushed heavily and scribbled something on a sheet of paper before nervously handing it to him. "You seem like a really nice guy, and I think you're really cute. Call me sometime?" She placed a quick kiss on Hana's cheek before scurrying off.

He caught her by the arm, and spun her around, kissing her full on the lips. He pulled away, leaving her breathless. "Sorry…I just…here…" He offered a small slip of paper with his own phone number on it. "I'd really like it if you called me too."

She smiled brightly and stole a quick kiss on his lips before running off.

"I really do hate you Asakura." I spoke up for the first time in several minutes.

"Aw come on Akira! You asked me to help you, and you _did_ pick that girl. Pick another." Hana handed me the first nurse's phone number.

"Yeah, but I don't see why you had to lie to her about your father…"

"Because I can." Hana smiled goofily. "Besides, it's not like I gave her a fake number or anything. I'll call her later and I'll arrange a date. It wouldn't be right to just play with a girl's emotions and not call her a couple times after seducing her like that. I'm not that low. Pick another girl.

I hastily picked out a tough looking red-haired nurse who was fighting off a guy that was hitting on her. "That one."

"If you say so." Hana shrugged, carefully scrutinizing her like he had done the first.

"Aww come on, baby! Why won't you say yes!" The guy got in front of the nurse and blocked her path.

"Leave me alone! No means NO, you creep!" The girl yelled, finally getting fed up with the relentless punk.

"Excuse me, but I don't appreciate you hitting on my girlfriend when she obviously doesn't want the attention." Before I had time to notice he was gone, Hana had walked up to the young man and woman, and had stood up to the annoying guy.

At first the nurse looked startled, but after a quick wink from Hana, she decided to play along. "You heard him, get away before my _boyfriend _decides to beat you up!" The red-haired woman stepped behind Hana and looped her arm around his. The young man nodded grudgingly toward Hana, and ran off.

"Thank you." The girl smiled towards the Asakura boy. "That creep's been bugging me all day."

"Don't thank me; I really don't deserve it." Hana sheepishly smiled at the girl, who was an inch or so taller than he was.

"Of course you do. My name is Kelly, and I want to thank you, so I will regardless of whether you want me to or not." She kissed Hana lightly on the cheek and smirked as he blushed.

Again, I couldn't figure out how he faked the blush. Normally there was no way a simple kiss could make _him_ of all people blush, but now it seemed he blushed at will.

"Actually, the only reason I got rid of that guy back there was because I wanted to hit on you myself." Again, a sheepish grin covered his face. "Sorry…but now I feel sort of selfish. I'll just leave you alone."

"Without leaving your name?" She stopped him as he was about to walk away.

"Hana Asakura."

"Hao or Yoh's son?" The girl asked.

"Yoh's…do you know my father?" Hana responded curiously.

"No, but my mother did. Sally of the Lilly 5? Have you heard of her? She traveled some with Yoh, Ren, Horo, and the others." Kelly conversed openly with Hana.

"Yeah, actually I have heard of her. The one with anger management issues? That's how Ren described her; speaking of Ren, that's his son, Akira. Hey, Akira! Come over here and stop being anti-social!" Kelly laughed at Hana's cuteness, but I just wanted to ring his scrawny neck.

Regardless, I got up and joined their little conversation. "Hey." I nodded in acknowledgement toward the girl. How did I know Hana was going to make a fool of me?

"Hello. I'm Kelly."

"Akira." I grunted. I hated talking to women. Unlike my Ainu cousin, or my stupid Asakura best friend, I had no clue what to say to impress such pretty creatures.

"Oh come on Akira! How are you ever going to get a girlfriend if that's the way you greet a lady?" Hana poked me. I wanted to slay him then and there to avoid further embarrassment. "I'm trying to teach him to talk to girls." Hana explained.

"So that's why you helped me out. I should have known you where a no good vermin when I first saw you Asakura, but you seemed like such a nice guy." Kelly glared playfully at Hana.

"I'm not that bad a guy." The blonde Shaman replied. "I'm just trying to help out a friend in need." Hana shrugged off her teasing.

"Well, it was nice meeting you two. Good luck with the ladies; I have to get back to work now if you don't mind." She tossed a slip of paper over her shoulder at Hana. "If you're anything like your father, give me a call some night, playboy."

"Will do." Hana caught the paper, and after checking it for authenticity, saluted her retreating figure playfully.

"I still can't figure out how you do it." I glared as the girl sauntered off.

"You will someday." Hana patted me on the back and escorted me back to the vending machine area.

"You're, like, blocking the soda machine." A female voice right behind us made me jump. I turned around to see Hoshi Asakura.

"Sorry, Hosh." Hana steeped out of his cousin's way.

"It's, like, all right Hana." Hoshi smiled warmly at Hana, but she glared at me.

"I'm going back to the room." Hana picked up his orange soda and nodded goodbye to the both of us. As soon as he had gotten out of hearing range I turned toward Hoshi who was inserting coins into the soda machine.

"So…were you at the Masquerade last week?" I attempted to make light conversation with the she-devil.

"Yeah, like, what's it to you?" She glared at the drink selections, but I knew the glare was intended at me.

"Well…I was wondering if you remembered dancing with someone named Dao Lian?" I prayed she said no. My heart would break if this was the girl I fell in love with.

"No. I, like, don't remember all the perverts I dance with. Men matter little in my life, so I don't see it, like, fit to remember their names." She picked up her grape soda and opened it.

"What if you ever got pregnant? Wouldn't you need to know who the father was?" I tried to not make her sound like too much of a slut, but it was hard to find the proper wording.

"I can't get pregnant; I'm sterile. Now, what did you want to talk about?" She rolled her eyes as I gave her a blank stare. "I'm not an idiot. You purposely stayed behind after Hana left."

"I wanted to ask your email address." I held my breath and awaited my death.

She looked strangely at me for a minute, but answered anyway. "HoshiGaHoshiiDesu at Sk dot com. I also have another one: 'PrincessOfTheStarSanctuary', but that's on msn."

"Oh thank God!" I let out the breath. "You see at the dance I met this girl who looked a little like you, and she said her name was Hoshi."

"Afraid of falling for someone like me?" She smirked evilly, reminding me a lot of her father. "I don't know who would give you my name in place of their own…Unless…was this girl really naïve and wearing a green dress with a really exquisite green mask?"

"Yeah. Why! Do you know her! Please, Hoshi, I have to find her!" I grabbed desperately at the collar of the older Asakura twin's hot pink jacket.

"Like, God! What's your problem! How far have you like gone with this girl that you need to find?" She glared at me, and I felt that if I said the wrong thing she would kill me. She easily freed herself from my grasp by twisting out of her jacket.

"I've kissed her is all…Please Hoshi, can't you at least tell me her name?" I begged.

A loud slap resounded down the halls of the hospital. I held onto my cheek as it stung and burned. "What the hell was that for!" I reeled in pain.

"I saw you looking down Thorn's shirt, and I don't like it! I don't mind when bastards like you do that to me, but when you start going after my baby sister, that's when I get angry! If I ever catch you coming on to her, then I will make you suffer in ways you can't even begin to fathom." The murderous look in her eyes was enough to tell me she wasn't playing around with me. "Do you understand me?"

"Yes, I swear I won't ever try anything like that ever again." I held up my hands to defend myself from her on-coming wrath.

"Like, totally awesome." Hoshi regained her ditzy attitude. "Oh, and like, about your mystery girl: be nicer to my little sister, and like totally don't tell your Hoshi girl your real name. Also, don't ask for her real name until you are like, totally sure that you're ready to find out. She's not who you think she is." Hoshi walked off back into the room, and I followed cautiously behind her, making sure that I didn't get too close so that her mood swings didn't rub off onto me.

The room was a circus. Well, maybe not a circus…a freak show would also properly describe it. Hao sat up in bed eating some substance that looked sort of like food while Opacho, Luca, Mari, and Macchi lectured him on the severity of the situation. Ivy sat next to him, beaming happily as she played with loose strands of his hair. She was overjoyed to be with her husband again. Both looked to be enjoying each other's company immensely. Anna and Yoh looked to be discussing something. Sometime in my absence Ivory and Makoto had arrived, and they, Hoshi, and Hana were talking about some topic that seemed very interesting—well, at least to those participating in the conversation. Amidamaru and Ivy's ghost Aikido were making goo goo eyes at each other as Chip, Isabelle, and some other ghosts played a round of poker.

I sat down in one of the armchairs next to Thorn, but for the most part ignored her. She, in turn, ignored me as well. She seemed to be busy anyway reading what looked like a bunch of random notebook pages thrown together. They looked old. I had to know what she was looking at, so I leaned toward her to look over her shoulder.

Somehow this made her mad. She hid the papers from my view and glared at me. "Do you mind?"

"God, don't be so bitchy, Asakura!" I glared back at her ten times as hard.

This made her even angrier. "I have a first name, you know! Why don't you use it sometime!" She stood, leaving the papers on her chair. "Never mind," She replied sarcastically, "You don't even know my first name! I'm just ASAKURA! Well, you know what? I'm sick of it. SICK!" A hard smack hit me straight across the face and she stormed out into the hall.

The entire room had gotten silent as the girl had blown up at me. Now they all stared menacingly at me, ganging up for the kill. Hao and Ivy looked like they wanted to ring my neck for hurting their daughter. Hoshi, Anna, Yoh, Ivory, and Makoto looked on extremely disapproving of me. Hane growled softly, baring his teeth at me, ready to bite. Hao's followers had murder in their eyes. The ghosts looked angry enough to attack me for offending their mistress.

Hana stood and walked to the door, drawing everyone's attention away from me. "I'm sure she's just having a bad day. After all Hao did give us a pretty bad scare. She needs to go home and sleep in a real bed and eat some real food. This hospital isn't really helping her health or mentality." Hana reasoned. "It's not entirely Akira's fault that he said the wrong thing at the wrong time. I'll go see if she's doing all right." The Asakura boy was about to completely exited when a thought occurred to him, "Though, you could be a bit nicer to her from now on Akira. You're too harsh."

All I could think was 'Way to be on my side, BEST FRIEND.' I sat down, opened up my laptop, and wrote a rather sappy email to my mysterious 'Hoshi-girl'.

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Mikau: Well…that was a rather…different…chapter. I hope it's not too weird, but Hana and Akira are teenage boys after all (so sorry to all non-perverted teenage boys). I'm going back to sleep. Hopefully I'll be better soon and the next chapter won't take so long. Oh, and someone asked if I would consider HanaxThorn for a pairing. Well, yes they're cousins, and I don't like the idea of incest, but you really have to admit that they are so darn cute together!

Thanks to all my reviewers from last chapter; I really do appreciate it!

PLEASE REVIEW!


	19. Dear Diary

Mikau: Hello! My sickness is getting worse, but I'm still hanging on. My school has its Fall Ball dance tonight, and I have tickets and a date, so I'm going to try and go. I already have my dress and shoes and stuff, but it's 1:34 PM, and I haven't gotten out of bed today yet. I'm getting as much rest as possible before I go to the dance at 8. This chapter is one of the longer ones full of Ivy flashbacks and Thorn commentary. It's not one of my best chapters, but it's still okay. I hope you all like it.

**_Disclaimer:_** I don't own Shaman King.

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Dear Diary

"MASTER HAO!" Hane's loud yapping startled Hana awake. He jumped, pushing me to the floor in the process. It was a rather rude awakening, but as my cousin smiled cutely at me, begging for forgiveness, I couldn't help but not hold a grudge. I smiled back at him as he helped me to my feet. "Sorry Thorn."

I nodded and made my way to my father's side. I accidentally tripped over Hane as he rushed about the room at light-speed, and fell onto where Mari and Macchi were still asleep on the floor. The Hanagumi's delighted squeals woke my sister who bounced off of Akira and rushed to the foot of Hao's bed. All hell broke loose; everyone started asking questions of Hao. There was yelling, screaming, and all other sorts of excitement as we all barged my father with questions and accusations. Everyone crowded around the bed, and it was hard to remain standing with all the pushing and shoving, so I leaned forward and placed one hand on the bed to keep myself from falling over.

I had the strangest feeling that someone was staring at me, but when I looked around all I could see was Akira with a star-struck look on his face, and drool coming out of the corner of his mouth. There was no way that that look was meant for me. He had to have been gaping at my sister; boys never gave me that look.

Hana leaned over and whispered something in Akira's ear. Akira mumbled something back, but then turned scarlet as Hana dragged him out of the room.

I noticed Hoshi glaring at Akira as Hana whisked his friend away, but I thought nothing of it. My sister made her way over to me, and pulled me out of the mass of bodies, trying to speak with my father. She adjusted my pajama top so that it covered me more and whispered in my ear: "You do know that that bastard was looking down your top, don't you?"

My cheeks suddenly turned a bright ruby color. "What! Are you sure!" Hoshi gave me 'the look', and my face flushed even more profusely. "That son of a gun! What a perverted little--! Oh, I don't know enough bad words to describe him!" I sat back down in the armchair I had been sleeping in and pouted. "What gives him the right!" My outburst went unnoticed by others in the room since the main focus was centered on my father.

"He doesn't have any right… Is he always like that?" My elder sister took the seat next to me.

"No, he's usually quiet and moody. Whenever he talks to me he never has anything nice to say. I thought it was just because that I was new to the group and maybe that he didn't do well with getting to know new people, but now I'm having second thoughts. Maybe he really is just that mean. It's not like I did anything to him."

"Here." Hoshi picked up a black boot from the floor and held it out to me. "Have you read it yet?"

"No." I answered truthfully, taking the key from around my neck and opening up the bottom of the shoe.

"Well then, you, like, should." Hoshi took the first page and forced it into my hands. It didn't look like she was giving me a choice.

I scanned the page quickly and set it down. "There is no way that I'm going to have anything to do with that woman."

"She's not, like, a woman, Thorn. She's like, your mother, so get over yourself, and like get reading." My twin forced the page back into my hands, and I was forced to read about some girl named Judo Tao and her many adventures and tragedies.

"I thought this was about Ivy; who's Judo?" I looked questioningly at my sister.

"Keep reading." She coaxed.

Judo had led such an interesting life full of a mixture of joy and sadness. She had had it hard growing up. She was a Chinese Allure Shaman, very similar to me. She too had had problems controlling her powers, and many had been killed in the process of trying to restrain her. I was lucky that my powers hadn't taken over and killed anyone I cared about yet. Little Judo really reached out and touched me. She seemed so determined to fit in and make friends, but her family, the Taos, discouraged any contact at all with the outside world. It really did pain me to read her words of suffering, but there were light, fun moments too. Judo was quite mature for her age, but that didn't stop her from playing childish jokes. Reading her hysterical exploits of pulling pranks on her brother Ren was quite enjoyable.

I cried at one point—actually, several, but now that I look back upon it, this one passage from her diary really stood out to me, and described her suffering: _"The truth is, I only keep a diary so that I can empty my head at the end of the day. I write down my torturous training schedule; I write about father being a big meanie and beating my big brother Ren. I also write about my mommy Ran, my nee-san Jun, and my grandpa Ching. I'm only five, and I already have such a burden to carry around. The Taos are dying out, and Father is becoming even more distrusting of the regular humans. Things are getting worse as my beatings increase and other bad things happen that I'll get into detail about later. I don't know how much longer my clan will last. We Taos are too proud for our own good. Not to get off subject, but I had another power accident today…one of the servants made me angry and I lost control. She's dead, and I have yet another accidental-murder on my conscience. Someday they are going to hunt me down and kill me for all the deaths I've caused. My family is already sending me away. I'm not sure where, but I know it's far, far away from China. Ren said the meanest thing: 'They finally got sick of you and are shipping you away and the foreigners are going to destroy you.' I don't know why he said it, it's not true. Mommy and Daddy love me. Jun loves me, Grandpa, even Ren loves me, so why would they want me dead! I don't want to die! I didn't mean to murder all those people; it wasn't my fault! It wasn't on purpose! I can't control my powers, and they're going haywire, but it's not my fault! I'm sorry…that little outburst was kiddish; Daddy told me to stop acting kiddish. I'll have to try harder…anyway, wherever I end up, I'll be sure to take you with me dear diary because without you, I'd have to remember things that had happened to me. I wish I had amnesia…but instead I do things this way. I write things down in you, and make myself forget. I will never re-read this, so that I don't have to remember. I don't want to remember all the awful things I've seen, so I plan on forgetting and burning this entire book one day. No one else has the right to be reading this except for me, and I don't want to read it, so when I fill all the pages I'll burn it. Aikido says I'm dealing with this in a very unhealthy way, but what can I do? I want all my bad memories to go away."_

She was a very clever girl, this Judo Tao, she was a powerful Shaman along with her samurai Aikido, and she had even studied with my great grandparents and grandparents: Yohmei, Kino, Keiko, and Mikihisa. While she had been staying at the Asakura temple, training, she wrote about some strange things that had happened to her when she went out by herself to train in the forest. She talked of the lovely scenery, and the peacefulness of the woods, but she also revealed hidden fears of going in there by herself when Yohmei sent her in. She rambled on and on about a boy occasionally stalking her in the woods as she trained, meditated, even bathed!

"_Yohmei sent me into the woods again. 'Judo, go collect five sticks and two stones the exact same weight from the forest, and bring them back to me.' Of course I tried to talk him out of it, but there was no point in arguing. I pulled my hair up into a high ponytail, and slipped on my tight fitting Tao training uniform that Jun had sent me last summer. I pondered for a moment over why it was so tight and showed so much cleavage. I procrastinated as long as possible before Yohmei complained of my taking too long. I set off into the woods and started to search for the twigs and pebbles._

"_I wonder…did he want the stones to be the same weight as the sticks, or did he want the sticks to be the same and the stones to be the same?" I mauled over the details out loud as I inspected sticks and stones, wondering mindlessly deeper into the trees._

_I picked up a few stones and guessed at their weight. "This is hopeless." I grumbled, sitting down on a nearby rock at the edge of a pond. I was lost, and it was getting late. I reached for another stone._

"_Of course it's hopeless, the way you're going about it. Don't take that one, pick up the stone to your left." A deep voice from high in the treetops chuckled at me._

"_Hello stalker." I sighed, sounding rather annoyed that _he _was following me yet again._

"_Ow. That hurts. Why the name calling, Judo?" The voice replied, sounding higher, squeakier this time._

_A smirk spread across my face and I decided to tease my disembodied voice of a stalker. "Well, you've been watching me ever since I first came to the Asakuras for training, and you _do_ act like a stalker in every way possible, so why shouldn't I call you a stalker when that's what you are? Oh, and by the way, your voice is changing." I stifled a laugh. "Looks like somebody's going through puberty."_

"_Ha, ha. Very funny, but it looks like you've been growing too. You've gone from a 36 to a 40 since I saw you last summer, and the top half of your training outfit is getting scandalously tight. I don't think it's a good idea to be alone with someone like me while wearing such arousing clothing." I didn't like the tone in his fluctuating voice._

"_What do you mean, and how did you know I was a 40! I did _NOT _tell you anything about myself, not even my name, so how would you find out all that stuff you know about me!" This man was seriously starting to creep me out._

"_I think you know what I mean. You're fourteen, and every girl should know about the dangers of being a woman by the time that they're that age. What have you heard about stalkers doing to their stalkeies?" His voice seemed to become deeper. He was coming closer._

"_A number of things." My voice shook as I felt him closing in. He had never gotten too close to me before. That was why I sort of felt comfortable with him. He could watch as long as we never met face to face. "What do you want!"_

"_A number of things." His voice seemed to come from directly behind me. I got to my feet and spun around. No one was there. He chuckled softly at my frenzy._

"_Don't mock me! What do you want?" 'Maybe I'm getting paranoid. Maybe he doesn't really exist. Yes, that's it. I'm hearing things; my mind is playing tricks on me. Wake up Judo, this isn't real!'_

"_Hush. I'm not mocking you. I'm simply amused by your cute little defiance. Now Judo, be realistic; we're not seven years-old anymore…what do you think I want from you?" _

_I grew more panicked as I could feel him coming closer. "I don't know! Do you want my powers! You can have them! They cause too much trouble in my life!"_

"_Now you're thinking." Someone behind me restrained my arms and slammed me up against a huge pine tree. "But that's not what I want at the moment."_

_I couldn't speak to ask him of his intentions. I was scared to death. He was touching me—no, not touching, more than touching. He had me pressed tightly up against his body, stuck between him and the stupid tree. What would he do? What did he want? Could it be possible that I was only imagining this? Something inside me snapped; my vision blurred and I almost blacked out._

"_I'm not going to take your powers. I'm not quite ready for that part of my plan yet." As one of his hands held me fast to the tree, the other freely roamed my body, amusing itself with my various lines and curves. "Besides, I'd have to kill you to get your powers, and then you wouldn't be around to stalk if you were dead. No, I don't plan on killing you yet."_

"_Then what?" I tried to struggle, but he was too strong._

"_May 12th. Did you know it's my fifteenth birthday today? Of course you didn't. I didn't tell you, and they most definitely didn't tell you, so you had no way of knowing." His hand undid my ponytail, and he ran his fingers lightly through my hair, now cascading down to my shoulder blades._

"_Who are 'they'?" I tried hard to keep conscious, but I could feel something at the back of my mind dragging me into darkness. It was almost as if he had cast a sleeping spell on me._

"_The Asakuras. The people you've been training with every summer since you were seven. They didn't tell you why they are training you either, did they? They are trying to make you into the ultimate shaman so that you can enter the Shaman Tournament and kill me. They didn't tell you that. They didn't tell you that you have a sister. They didn't tell you who you really are. I find it quite sad that even your so-called 'parents' lie to you. You think you're Chinese, a Tao. What would you say if I told you that you're not? What if I said that you weren't related to those people at all? And above all, how do you feel about the name Ivy? That's your real name, not Judo."_

"_LEAVE ME ALONE! STOP LYING TO ME!" I gathered all my strength and pushed him off of me, freeing myself from his grip. I fell to the ground from the force, exhausted, but I struggled to my feet and tried to run. I was about to start running for my life when I noticed he was gone. The boy had simply vanished. I lay back down on the ground to rest seeing as the danger had been averted. 'Why am I so tired?'_

"_The whole time I had my hands on you I was draining your powers and energy and rerouting them into my body to make me stronger." The voice responded to my thoughts. He was standing right next to me, but I couldn't lift my head off of the ground to look at him. I completely gave up and let him do whatever he wanted. He just stood there and didn't do anything. 'Hurry up and get it over with; you're wasting my time. Just kill me or whatever.' I shut my eyes and waited for death to come._

_Still he just stood there looking down at me. "God, even when you're submissive you're snippy. You do know I can hear your thoughts, don't you? 'Wasting your time'? If I were going to do anything to you, I would have done it already. I was just playing with you. I have to do something to amuse myself every once in awhile, and you _are _the most amusing woman I know. Don't take it so seriously, and stand up."_

_As he stood there chuckling at me, I somehow found the strength to stand up again. I looked at where he had been standing, but I couldn't see his face since he was in the shadows. "Who are you, you sick, perverted, bastard? Who do you think you are scaring me like that!" I advanced on him, yelling while trying to get a good look at his face._

_He would have none of it. For every step I took forward, he took two back. Eventually I stopped trying to look at him. "You don't need to know who I am yet. You'll come to me out of your own free will to join my cause someday soon, and when you do, you'll find out then. I'll use your powers combined with mine to destroy the humans plaguing the earth. But just to satisfy your curiosity and to give you something to call me by, I am, for all future references, the Future King."_

_There was a moment of silence between us, for he had apparently finished speaking, but I had nothing to add to the conversation—well, nothing he would appreciate hearing. 'He's completely insane.' Silence prevailed between us until I finally decided to end the awkwardness. "Well, I'm going home." I walked sideways out of the clearing, not daring to take my eyes off of his shadowy form in case he decided to try something._

"_Wait." He called me back into the shadows of the thick clusters of trees. I wasn't about to go anywhere closer to that psychotic weirdo. "Please?" He held a gloved hand out into the semi-light of the clearing. Red, fingertipless gloves with big clunky stars on the back of the hand reached out to me, entreating me to come to him._

_I subconsciously stepped closer to him. Before I knew it, my feet had carried me all the way across the clearing so that I was standing a few feet from him. I reached out hesitantly and touched his hand with a single finger. I have no idea what possessed me to do it, but that single finger became two, and two became three, three four, four five, and pretty soon I was carefully inspecting every inch of his hand with the two of my own. I slowly slid the glove off and scrutinized his bare hand._

"_Your hand is really soft." I mumbled, gently caressing it as if under some trance._

"_Really? The rest of my skin is soft too…want a feel?" He offered his entire arm for me to drool over. I snapped out of my hormone-induced daze, and gave him the most shocked and slightly put-off look. He chuckled at the look on my face and moved his arms back into the shadows. "Relax. Unless you really do want to touch me, I was just kidding."_

"_I don't trust you." I stated plainly._

"_I've given you no reason to, so I'd expect no less. You will soon though, but for now to show you my good intentions…" A small fire spirit appeared in his outstretched hand. "This little guy will light your way back to the Asakura Compound. I'd do it myself, but I'm afraid that would upset my plan. Okay?"_

"_Why do you want to help me?" I was still completely distrustful of this person. I wanted as little to do with him as possible._

"_Think logically. I said that I had use of you so I can become Shaman King. I think I've made it clear that I want you alive. Do you at least trust me a little?" The stalker asked, stepping further back into the shadows._

"_Why would I trust a creepy stalker guy who just attacked me and told me of his plans to destroy humankind? You've given me no reason to trust you, but somehow…I wonder…why won't you show me your face?" I took another hesitant step towards him reaching out toward where his face should be._

_He caught my hand in his and pulled me toward him, into his embrace. All of the sudden, all manner of light seemed to fade from the clearing. "You are most intriguing…why would you want to look upon the face of your future murderer? Do you wish to have nightmares? You do realize that when I carry out my plans, you'll end up raped and murdered? If you don't, I do think you're either very stupid, or very sheltered. Perhaps you don't know what I mean?" My heart sped up as he leaned closer to whisper dangerously in my ear, and bite hard at the base of my neck right at my collarbone._

"_Let go of me and show me your damn face already, you psycho!" I tried desperately to get away, but he only bit harder on my throat and down the neckline of my shirt. This was really starting to frustrate me. All I wanted was to know who this strange person was. I didn't appreciate his manhandling me, and I didn't want to be any closer to him than necessary, but I wanted to see his face. I needed to know what he looked like so that if I met him later on in my life I would be able to recognize him and not 'join him of my free will' like he said. 'I might be naïve, but I'm not stupid.'_

"_I'm not stupid either. I won't show you my face for the same reason you want to see it. I'm sorry, but you won't be able to recognize me at all when next time we meet. My voice will have changed by then, and you'll have nothing to go on as far as identification." He laughed evilly, and even though I couldn't see, I could tell he was smirking. The mysterious stalker let go of me._

_I had to get out of there, so I ran; I later realized what a bad idea that had been when I tripped over a tree root protruding out of the ground and twisted my ankle. I yelped in pain, but tried to get up and run some more._

"_I wouldn't do that..." A little ball of fire appeared hovering just inches above the ground by his feet, lighting his way through the darkness towards me. I lay helplessly on the ground and nursed my ankle. Tears dribbled out of my eyes as I cried out of a mix of pain and frustration. He just wouldn't leave me alone. A quick string of Chinese curses that Ren had taught me escaped my lips. "Hey, don't cuss me out in a language I don't understand." And then, as an afterthought, he whispered almost to himself, "I knew I should have had Zan-Ching teach me more Chinese…"_

_I struggled again to stand up and get away, but when I finally made it to my feet I was immediately thrown to the ground by a sharp pain to my ankle. A gross snapping sound kept me on the ground. Hearing the your bones snap is really sickening._

_A sadistic chuckle escaped my pursuers lips. "I told you not to do that; your ankle is broken." _

_I wanted to slap him so badly, but that would involve standing… "Well thank you Captain Obvious! I could have never figured that out by the sharp jolts of pain and the crunching of my bones!" I really was in no position to smart off to him, but I couldn't resist giving him some lip. I was completely at his mercy, but I didn't care. If I was going to die, I was going to go out kicking, screaming, and insulting him in any way possible._

"_There you go being snippy again. God, no wonder I lust after you! No other girl would _dare_ speak that way to me." My heart sunk at his words. This was getting just a bit too scary… _

_I lay back down on the ground and waited for him to do something sinister or cruel. If my struggling was just further amusing him, then it might be best to just give in and be more submissive. "Fine. Have it your way; I don't care anymore. Just do what you want then leave me alone. Just make it quick because I have to get home soon or else Yohmei-sensei will be upset that I took so long but haven't managed to complete my training exercise."_

_An amused laugh met my ears yet again, but unlike the previous tormenting ones, this one seemed more friendly and almost…endearing. "You're pathetic." He stopped a few paces from my body; the little flame that had been lighting his path hovered around his shoes. "It's so cute how you think I'm out to get you when all I want to do is help."_

_Consciousness was slowly leaving me as I lay there on the ground in pain. My brain was automatically shutting down so that I wouldn't have to feel the pain from my ankle. My fading gaze focused on his strange shoes. They were red and square-like. They seemed to be made out of Legos, but instead of having the word 'Lego' printed on them, they were stamped 'Hao'. I couldn't help but think that they must be rather uncomfortable; I would hate to wear square shoes._

_My eyes slipped almost shut, and I think he thought that I was unconscious because he snapped his fingers, and the small fireball illuminated the entire clearing so that he could see better. He tore a strip of cloth off of his poncho and used it to wrap my ankle tightly. After that job was done, he took off the poncho to reveal nicely sculpted abs, and a well-chiseled chest. His physique under that mantle was to die for. The man covered my body lovingly with his poncho, and smoothed my hair so that it didn't get tangled. He made a fire in the center of the clearing away from the trees so that they wouldn't catch on fire. This done, he lay down next to me and closed his eyes. As if on second thought, he reopened them, and got into a kneeling position over my almost comatose body._

_He studied me for a while, taking every aspect of me in. I too looked him over, but now I cannot recall his face. All I remember is that he had the most lovely eyes, and long dark hair. My heart starts pounding faster every time I think of what he did next. He whispered quietly, "I've always wanted to do this…" and kissed me. He KISSED me! I'm ashamed to admit it, but I liked it. I know it seems wrong since he said that he was going to kill me, but…I don't know. It just felt right. I know that I know nothing about the subject of love, but I think I have a sort of crush on him…_

_I don't remember any more since that was when I fainted. I woke up the next morning in my bed with Kino, Yohmei, and Keiko standing guard over me. They clustered around me when they found I was awake. Keiko looked worriedly down at me, "Judo, honey! How do you feel?" Her hand automatically shot to my forehead. "Her temperature has gone down." She reported to the other two._

"_Good. She should be fine now." The blind Itako nodded her head and left the room without a backward glance, but I could have sworn she said something like 'if he didn't violate her while she was out.' I had no idea what she meant, so I just pretended not to hear._

_Yohmei looked gravely at me. "Child, you were very sick with a fever. You called out in your sleep. Tell me, what do you remember of your nightmares, if you do remember at all?"_

"_Nightmares? I don't remember. The last thing I recall before fainting was—" I abruptly stopped. I didn't think it would be wise to tell my teacher that that boy had kissed me. I had almost forgotten that I was speaking out loud and had left my sentence hanging. I rushed to finish before they suspected something. "—the boy. He wrapped my ankle for me."_

_Yohmei frowned, suspecting me of lying. "Child, that was but a dream. The boy you spoke of is not real. You dreamed it all up."_

"_But—!" I threw the covers off and gazed down at my ankle. Nothing was wrong with it; there were no signs that it had ever been broken, but that didn't prove anything. They could have fixed it. They were powerful shaman. "I know what I saw!" I cried angrily. "You can't hide the fact that he was there from me forever! I might have been dreaming this time, but I wasn't dreaming all the countless other times I've met him in the woods!" Hateful tears spilled forth from my eyes like a fountain. I don't know why I was so upset, but somehow, I was angry that he was trying to cover this up and keep it from me like the countless other things he was hiding._

"_How many other times were you with that man?" He seemed angry with me like I had done something wrong._

"_I don't know; too many to count. He always walks and talks with me when you send me into the woods." I got back into bed and shrugged. I wasn't as angry now that he was admitting to the fact that my stalker existed._

"_Every time!" Yohmei screeched, startling both Keiko and me._

"_Pretty much every time. Sometimes he doesn't talk to me, but I know he's there. He always watches, and whenever I'm having problems with one of your stupid training exercises he helps me out." This seemed to infuriate my sensei even more._

"_Has he ever touched you?" I felt like a fugitive being interrogated in such a rude, straightforward way._

"_No…at least not before yesterday. He had never met me face-to-face…Actually, I've still never seen his face before. Yesterday was the first time he had ever touched me, but that was just to scare me. He didn't do anything to me if that's what you're thinking." I shrugged off his obvious concern._

"_I think you are lying to me. Tell me, if not he, then who left those marks on you!" My teacher pointed an accusing finger in my direction._

"_What marks?" I blinked stupidly. Keiko held up a cosmetic mirror for me to inspect myself. Close to my collarbone and some all the way down to my chest, a string of red marks adorn my skin. "Oh…well, yeah he did that…so? Jun comes home with marks like that all the time."_

"_Do you know what he could have done to you!" Yohmei glared furiously at me, but when I didn't give the correct reaction he was waiting for, he stormed out of the room, leaving me to talk with Keiko, my sort of adopted mom._

"_Why is he so angry with me?" Tiny tears, looking almost like small pearls, flowed out of my eyes._

"_Oh…Darling." My surrogate mother wrapped me in her arms. "He's not mad at you…he's mad at himself for not being able to protect you."_

"_What do you mean? I'm absolutely fine. I'm not hurt or anything." I misunderstood what she was getting at._

"_Well…Oh dearest…" Keiko held me tighter, resting my head on her chest. "Judo honey, we're afraid that that man you were with did something horrible to you while you were unconscious, but we have no quick, for-sure way of knowing at the moment. My father is just upset with that man, not with you."_

"_Oh, is that what this is about. He didn't do anything to me, only a few bite marks. He said he wouldn't hurt me or anything until it was time for him to use me and my powers to help him become Shaman King and rid the world of humans." I shrugged off her concern and lay back down in my warm bed._

"_You're sure!" Keiko didn't seemed one bit surprised about the becoming Shaman King, using my powers, and killing humans part of my sentence. Instead she questioned my certainty of whether or not he did anything to me._

"_I trust him." It slipped so easily from my lips that it surprised even me. I quickly revised my statement. "His word at least. Yes, he's been secretive and a bit deceitful, but he's never straight out lied to me. I think I can trust what he told me."_

"_I see…then you should be fine. We were worried sick when you didn't return home last night, but it was too late to go out looking for you. It would have been dangerous. This morning we set out to find you as soon as it was light out, and we were horrified when we found you sleeping in such an intimate position with that man. His arms around you that way, and you curled up against him, laying your head on his chest. And your appearances, they both looked so disheveled; we feared he had done the worst to you." _

_I let the woman ramble on and on about how the man had acted when he was awakened by the Asakuras. He hadn't put up a fight or anything. He simply handed me over. I found it hard to believe he had acted so civilly. When I told her of my doubts, she did admit that the man had kissed me in such a way that one might a lover, and he had fondled me some right in front of the Asakuras before handing my body over. I silently blushed and wondered what Keiko would think if I told her that, had I been awake, I probably would have kissed him back. _

I kept reading and was startled to find out that this Judo girl was actually my mother. Her parents, the Kyôyamas had abandoned Ivy outside the Tao compound shortly after Ivy had been born. The Taos had raised Ivy under the pseudonym of Judo, and had never told her that she wasn't blood related to them. Judo didn't find out that she was really Ivy Kyôyama until she was almost fifteen. When she found out that the Taos had been lying to her, her whole life, she naturally was upset, and set out to find her real family and her twin sister Anna, also a shaman who had been abandoned by their parents at a later date. Ivy had run into my father on the road, and not knowing who he was joined him and agreed to marry him in exchange for him teaching her how to control her Allure powers from taking over and accidentally killing someone. I found myself addicted to reading her story. Ivy, Shaman Runaway was so captivating that I couldn't put it down despite there being over 500 pages to it, and around 74 different chapters.

It really shocked me to find out that my father had been such a perverted, cruel jerk to Ivy, yet she still fell for him in the end. In turn, Ivy had been selfish, confused, stupid, and downright snippy. Both had horrible problems sitting down and talking with each other. Though they had known each other countless years, they still had the worst time communicating. Yet they had fallen in love. Even though at first he had planned to 'use her and lose her' after he stripped her of her powers, and she had run away from her 'demon-fiancée' many a time, they still had ended up together. They quite literally had to almost go through hell for each other, but somehow they had still ended up married. I think my favorite part was the wedding; both the bride and the groom had gotten cold feet at the last minute, and friends and family members practically had to hold guns to their heads to get them married.

There were humorous parts, there were heart-wrenching parts, parts that made me laugh, parts that made me cry, some parts were just weird, and some were too gross to describe. Most things in there were surprising. For instance, I couldn't picture Opacho as a cute little five year old, my father wanting to destroy all humans, Hane as an angel, Kanna not pregnant, or Yoh almost marrying Ivy. Those were all a shock.

Some of the hardest stuff to read was when Ivy was about seven months pregnant. She was completely insane and basically not herself that whole month, and it had almost torn my mother and father apart.

_Being pregnant is ruining my life and my marriage. I am so sick of not being in control of my own body! I want my life back! I find myself saying things I wouldn't normally even think about. I've become a horrible, bitchy, short tempered, irritable person. I'm not Ivy Asakura anymore. I've suddenly become some terrible monster, and she's ruining me._

_Sometimes I wish I had never gotten pregnant, but that's stupid since this was pretty much inevitable. I mean twice a day is going to get you pregnant sooner or later. I suppose this had to happen… I just wish that I could wake up one morning in Hao's arms like we use to before we were married. I want to go back to not being pregnant or married or anything. Our relationship was so much better back the two or so years after the Shaman Tournament ended. We were still 'just engaged', and we couldn't have been more in love._

_Now look at us. I've banned him from the bedroom at night, and he's started drinking all the time again. It's been years since he's drank, and now he's started again. I feel so guilty, but being around him makes me insane, and I can't help but blame him for my misery. I suppose it's half my fault too, it's not like he raped me or anything, but getting knocked up with triplets isn't any fun at all, and I'm not handling the stress well. I just want to go back to normal. Sure I want kids, but not if it's going to destroy my marriage with Hao. I could really use his support right now, but he's off drinking and wallowing in sorrow. I can't help but feel that that's my fault, probably because it really is my fault. I don't know what to do…I feel that I'm failing him as a wife, and our relationship is back to square one. My only light at the end of the tunnel is that the month will be over soon, and maybe I'll be back to normal after that. God, I hope so because if not, divorce is inevitable. _

I looked up to notice that while I was reading, Hoshi had left the room and returned. Hana and Akira had also come back from their little talk in the hall, and Akira was sitting down in the armchair next to me. All of the sudden, I remembered that he had been looking down my shirt earlier. A fiery anger welled up inside of me, and I tugged on the neckline of my shirt, pulling it upwards. He didn't seem to notice, so I ignored him. He ignored me as well, but I swear he was staring at me out of the corner of his eye. My suspicions were confirmed when he leaned forward to read Ivy's diary over my shoulder.

I hid the papers from him and glared. "Do you mind?"

"God, don't be so bitchy Asakura!" He glared back.

I completely lost my temper. Where did he get the audacity to treat me like that after he had been so rude and perverted to me! Why couldn't he just call me Thorn! What was his problem! "I have a first name, you know! Why don't you use it sometime!" I stood up, leaving the diary pages in my chair. "Never mind," I growled sarcastically, "You don't even know my first name! I'm just ASAKURA! Well, you know what? I'm sick of it. SICK!" I smacked him hard across the face and stormed out of the room without a backwards glance.

A small trail of tears streamed down my face like soft rain. I hated the way he treated me like I was inferior to him, like I didn't really exist, like I wasn't really a person. I stopped down the hall at a soda machine and fished in my pocket for some change. I fed the change into the machine and pressed D9 for a strawberry soda. The vending machine ate my change, so I kicked it and stubbed my toe. A soft sigh escaped my lips as I sat down with my back against the stupid machine. I rested my head on my knees and let out a huge sigh. "This has been such a bad day…"

Someone walked up to the soda machine and bumped it. A strawberry soda fell out through the slot, and a gracious hand offered the soda to me. "Can I help in any way?"

I looked up at the smiling face of my cousin. Hana's smile was contagious as I blushed and took the can from him. "Thanks, I think you already have."

"Good." He sat down next to me with his back also up against the machine. "Pretty girls shouldn't be sad. You don't look as cute when you're crying."

I blushed a deeper color and had to remind myself that he and I were related. "I'm sure you don't mean that; you couldn't possibly think _I_ was pretty. Thank you for trying to cheer me up though."

Hana blinked at me, turning my face to meet his. "Actually, I do mean it, and if you aren't cheered up by now, I've completely failed at what I came here to do."

I looked away from him, blushing. "Thank you. I'm quite cheered up now." My soda fizzed as I opened it. "But don't you think this is a bit awkward? Us being cousins and all, I mean." I didn't dare look at him in case he hadn't intended to hit on me at all, and it had just come out that way.

"Yeah, I was afraid you would think that. My aunt probably wouldn't like it if I kissed you either. Ivy would most likely kill me." I was shocked to hear him so casually mention my mother when no one else did.

"You knew Ivy?"

"Hmm? Oh, yeah…I did. She was a horrible mother, but the best aunt in all creation. I always thought of her as sort of my mother since Anna was never there, but I'm getting way off topic." Hana stole a quick drink of my strawberry drink.

"Wait…you also said something about you kissing me. Wouldn't that be incest!" 'Not that I would mind you kissing me.'

"No. I don't think so at least. By definition, for it to be incest we'd have to have sex. Now _that _would be awkward. I can't imagine doing my own cousin." He seemed to have little to no problem speaking his mind about such things.

I just blushed and nodded my head in agreement.

He smiled sweetly at me and apologized. "I'm sorry, too candid for such a blushing virgin?"

I blushed an even darker shade and nodded again.

"Sorry. Actually I came here to talk to you about Akira." My cousin scratched the back of his head nervously.

"That perverted, son of a gun! I can't believe the nerve of that guy! He treats me like I'm not even there, and then he goggles at my—"

"—He likes you." Hana interrupted my rant.

"…What?" I wasn't completely sure I had heard him right.

"He's in love with you; he just doesn't know how to show it. He's always this way with girls. He doesn't know how to act around them, so he's a total jerk." My cousin assured me.

"Really?"

"Yeah, and since he's always such a jerk around you, you have to figure he's totally crazy for you. It's not his fault he is the way he is. He had a hard time growing up, and maybe you could cut him some slack?" Hana entreated me for his friend.

I thought about it for a moment, and decided to be the bigger person. "Sure. I could be nicer to him I guess." I smiled and got to my feet.

He got up too. "Thanks Thorn. He'll appreciate it." Hana placed a quick kiss on my cheek and disappeared back into the hospital room.

I smiled and followed him back inside. Hoshi gave me a 'Thorn, thou shall not kiss thy cousin.' look. I glared at her and took a seat in my armchair.

Akira, still sitting in the chair next to mine, looked up and opened his mouth to speak. I could tell by the look on his face that he was going to apologize, but I cut him off with a quick kiss to the cheek. "Sorry I blew up at you." I smiled sweetly at the confused look on his face.

"What is up with you today, Asa—Thorn?" He blinked, but remembered to call me by my first name.

"Oh, nothing. Hey, can I use your laptop to check my email?"

"Uh…sure." My niceness was still puzzling him, but he handed over the laptop anyway.

I logged on, and to my extreme delight, had an email. 'It's from HIM!' I quickly opened it and read.

_Hey, Hoshi. It's me, Dao Lian. I hope you don't mind me emailing you, but…well, I don't know; I've been thinking about you a lot lately. I was wondering what you were up to and stuff. I'm doing fine all except for this demon bitch giving me hell. Other than that…well I actually don't have anything to say; my life is pretty boring, but I just wanted to talk to you. Sorry to bother you, but I missed you. Even if we've only met once, I feel like I've known you so much longer. I know it's a pretty clichéd line, but it's how I really feel. I really enjoyed talking at the dance, and I hope you feel the same. _

_-ChineseShadowBoy33_

I rushed to reply:

_Hey Lian! It's Hoshi! I don't mind your email at all! Actually, I was going to email you sooner, but I was a bit too shy, and thought that you might think I was being too forward…Plus the fact that my dad was really sick…He should be fine now though. I've been thinking about you too. I'm not up to much since my life is pretty uneventful. Well, actually, I'm moving in with my aunt and uncle. My sister and father are coming too. They just told us this morning. This guy that I just met, I think I told you about him at the dance, but anyway, he's been a real jerk to me today. He actually looked down my shirt! I'm really glad you emailed me. I would have been too scared to have tried to get in touch with you; I've missed you too. I hope that we can talk more later, but right now I have to give this laptop back to the guy I borrowed it from. He's sure to get angry if I take to long. I'll talk to you soon? See ya later! Oh, and I almost forgot, I changed my email address. I've had the 'ThornsOfABriarRose' one forever._

_-TornByThorns_

_P.S: I feel the same way as you do about how long we've known each other._

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Mikau: Yeah, next chapter should be better. This hospital part has dragged on far too long.

Thanks to: glitter galz, Hemila-Rose, Kiva Kyoyama, HAO-Addictive, Touch of the Wind, ChibiAzn3, ChibiKitsune, DarkPisces33, Hannah/Akira'sbiggestfan, Danny, yo wuz up, ShadowYasha, haoxivy 4 eva, KaZuYa MiNeKuRa, y0ur-w0rst-nightmARee, Andrea Nefisto, Strawberry, IvyAsakura13, yekeperson, and Firebane5.

To ChibiAzn3: Thank you so much! I'm a big YohxAnna fan myself. About your question: Hana likes Thorn. -.- God, I really hate incest. Somehow all the weird stuff works its way into my fics…Thank you though for your kind words!

To ChibiKitsune: Sorry, but I haven't found a suitable place to insert Lyserg yet. Sally just kind of worked her way in there somehow…

To DarkPisces33: We don't know what I'm sick with, but my diabetes is making it worse. I'm trying to rest up and get well again, but I keep getting worse. Thank you so much for your review. It means a lot to me when people say that my work means a lot to them. It makes me feel important!

Andrea Nefisto: Yes, I haven't been eating well…rubs back of neck nervously I did remember to eat a Pop Tart, a sandwich, and White Castle's yesterday. Wow…that really isn't all that much…Anyway, thanks for the review. Last chapter was really fun to write with all of its strangeness and weirdness. Writing Hana and Akira's conversation was very interesting to say the least. I agree that the boys did turn out a little too like their fathers, but I like them the way they are. Oh, and I did read HGHD! Hoshi was sooooooo cuuuute! I just wanted to glomp him! The part with him in the graveyard being attacked by Ren and then Bason being afraid of cats was hilarious! Anyway, back to my fic, as with I,SR, I will not be announcing Thorn's pairing until it is painfully obvious who she falls in love with.

IvyAsakura13: You can tell your brother that Akira is just a punk, though he does act a little goth, and he does have that goth choker… Akira wears other clothes than just black. Though he does have black leather pants…and that black jacket…hmm. Maybe he is a little goth? I prefer to think that he's just a punk though.

To Firebane5: Glomps Hey! I missed you! Thank you for your inspiring words, your reviews are always so helpful. Sometimes when I have a not-so-great chapter people still say it's good because of my other work and they're afraid to hurt my feelings or something, but you are always pretty candid about what you think. I just wanted to thank you. I totally agree that I needed those flashbacks two chapters ago. This whole updating thing is going too slowly, and even though my chapters are longer, I feel that they're dragging and that I really need to speed it up and let my poor readers in on what's going on with Ivy leaving and everything. It's frustrating being so busy with homework and everything. Plus I'm still so sick and everything. It really is horrible. I know you know what I'm talking about since you're so loaded down too. I hope you get time to update your fic. That last chapter was pure genius. I loved the last little part with Hao pretending to be Haru! It was hilarious! I cannot stress how much I loved it! Definitely one of my favorite chapters so far. I can't wait until the HaruxMia pairing is more obvious. Anyway, I agree about what 4KIDS did to Hao. God, I am so glad that their dubbing of SK is over so that they can't ruin it anymore! My poor, poor Hao, and Yoh, and Anna, and Horo, and Ren, and goes on and on for hours listing every single character in SK. I'm so glad that you like the way I made Hana and Akira like their fathers. I was afraid I had made them a bit too clone-ish, but that's just how I think they should be. I'm trying to bring Yoh a little into the foreground a bit more, but it seems that he might just have to stay in the background. Sigh…I miss the days of I,SR when I had a nice HxIxYxA (what would you call that? If three is a triangle, then what is four? A trapezoid?) pairing going. Hoshi does her job well, but I find it a bit sad at how overqualified for the job she is…She's already messed up her own life, so she lives to help her baby sister out. I agree with the whole HanaxThorn thing being messed up. I'm really not an incest fan, but somehow all the weird stuff ends up in my fics. Oh well…thank you so much for your reviews!

Mikau: Well, this being chapter 19, I think I'll be a bit over 20 chapters…okay, maybe a lot over 20 chapters, but I don't think I'll have 74 at the end. Oh, and by the way, so sorry to those who didn't read the original I,SR and have no idea who Judo is or how she plays into the plot line. If you go back and read chapters five and six of Ivy Shaman Runaway, you should get it.

PLEASE REVIEW!


	20. Moving In

Mikau: Hello everyone! I'm feeling better today. I came home sick from school, then I rested up, did my six hours of homework, and now am posting this! I think I should be completely better by the end of the week. Thank you all so much for your get well wishes; it means a lot to me!

**_Disclaimer:_** I, Kara, do not own Shaman King.

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Moving In

The hospital did a few tests, but after they didn't find anything wrong, they let me go. Anna had called my house and had had my followers deliver Thorn, Hoshi, and my luggage to Funbari Onsen, so we didn't even have to stop by my mansion before we moved into the Inn.

When we arrived at our new home, Hoshi looked around the place with minimal interest. Thorn walked straight in, being all too familiar with the house. I lagged behind the others, not sure if I really wanted to go through with this. Mari, Macchi, Luca, and Opacho had gone back to the mansion, and Hoshi, Hane, Thorn, and I had gone with Yoh, Anna, Valerie, Hana, and Akira back to the hot-springs resort.

"Are you coming Hao?" My little brother popped his head out the door and smiled brightly at me. I smiled back and nodded. I remained silent as Yoh showed me around the Onsen. "To the left is the kitchen. There's a door there that leads to the backyard and another kitchen door leads into the basement. Iv—Val's lab is down there. Her room is this one right here just to the right of the kitchen. Your room is this one right next to hers. I don't know why, but Anna gave you the room that connects to Val's…so I guess you could use the door that links your rooms to go into her room any time you wanted and no one would know. I don't know why you'd want to though. There's nothing really in her room, but her bed is the comfiest in the house. It's a water bed."

"And how would you know that my adulterous little brother?" I lifted a suspicious eyebrow towards Yoh.

"Well sometimes when she's really depressed I—wait…adulterous! Aw crap! Hao, don't you dare tell Anna! Please! She'll divorce me for sure!" The terrified look in his eyes was enough to keep me from teasing him. He reminded me of myself and how scared I had been of losing Ivy.

"Don't worry. What do I care that you're cheating on your wife with her cousin?" I replied emotionlessly.

"Thanks Hao…Oh, and Hoshi and Thorn are staying upstairs. Anna and my bedroom is upstairs too. It's one of the bigger ones, so you shouldn't have any trouble finding it. Hana is upstairs also, so you and Valerie have the whole floor to yourselves."

"Why do I have the feeling that Anna set this up?" I mused out loud.

"'Cause she did." Yoh answered truthfully, leading me into the kitchen. "Anna's trying to get you two together. You don't think she gave you two the conjoined rooms, and made sure you were the only ones on this floor for nothing, do you? She's trying to get you two together. That's also the reason she's making you stay here."

Anna awaited us in the kitchen with a mop and pail. "There you two are. What took you so long?" Her tone was cold and emotionless, and I didn't like the look she was giving us.

"Sorry Anna. I was just showing Hao around." Yoh placed a quick kiss on his wife's lips and smiled sheepishly.

She directed a small smile his way and nodded. "That's all right Yoh honey. I forgive you. Now go run 100 laps and we'll call it even."

"B-but…Anna! I'm already Shaman King! Why do I still have to train!" My twin looked exasperatedly at his wife.

"Because I said so. Get going, and no more whining or I'll double it." I felt sorry for my little bro that he fell in love with such a she-devil.

"Yes Anna…" Yoh sobbed, but did as Anna ordered of him.

I was left alone with the little witch. "What are you looking at?" She spit wickedly at me. I hadn't noticed that I was staring at her.

"Huh? Oh, nothing." I shrugged in an uninterested manner.

"Don't you have something better to do?" She baited me.

"No, not really." I fell for her trap hook, line, and sinker.

"Good." She threw the mop at me. Thankfully I caught it before it hit me in the face. "Then I want the Onsen spotless by dinner time. You have three hours; the baths are down the hall, third door to the right."

My cool façade shattered instantly. "What! You can't order me around like that! I'm a guest!"

"You're no guest; you're a lazy drunkard. You'll work if you expect to eat and sleep here." I would have slapped her if she weren't a woman.

"I'm not a drunk, and I'm not lazy! At my house we had servants to clean and stuff, but that doesn't make me lazy! I refuse to clean your house." I glared dangerously.

She glared back with murder in her eyes. "Well in my house, I _make _ my own servants. Consider yourself enslaved."

There was no fighting that sort of look. I was stuck doing her every whim if I wanted to survive. "But…but…the Onsen is huuuuuuge! I'll never finish it by myself!" I resorted to pleading with her.

"God, Hao! I knew Ivy was slack with you, but please! Did she have no control over you at all? How did she get you to do anything?" Anna tried to guilt me into doing the work.

'Well, before we were married she threatened to leave me. After we were married she locked me out of the bedroom.' I glared viciously at her, but didn't answer.

"Fine. If you still insist on being stubborn I'll get you a little help." Anna turned to the basement door and opened it a crack. "VALERIE!"

"YES?" An annoyed screech echoed up the stairway.

"GET YOUR BUTT UP HERE!" Anna called back to her cousin.

"Give me half an hour! I can't stop this experiment for even a few seconds or it will ex—" A relatively small boom shook the house and smoke wafted its way up the stairwell. A noisy set of footsteps accompanied by bursts of coughing followed the smoke up the steps until a very ticked looking Valerie appeared in the kitchen. "—explode. What did you want Anna that was so important that you had to interrupt my research when I was making a breakthrough!" Her voice rose in volume as she continued her sentence.

"Your research is pointless anyway. You've been working on the same project for several years, and you've made no real advances. It's time to give up and face reality. I don't want you doing any more of those stupid experiments; now go help Hao scrub the Onsen. I want it spotless, and you have until dinner time." Anna shoved the pail into Valerie's hands and started to walk away.

The silver-haired woman looked crestfallen. With that one paragraph, Anna had killed Valerie's spirit, and now the chemist just stood there like a Jang-si corpse awaiting orders.

Anna looked back at the motionless girl. "Well? What are you waiting for? Tie your hair up and get going! The both of you!" She threw two red rubber bands at us and left Valerie to cry.

I caught the band and did as Anna said, tying my hair up in a high ponytail on top of my head, but Valerie just let the tie hit her in the face and drop to the floor without a sound. I picked up the band, lying useless at her feet, and quickly braided her hair so it would stay out of her face. It looked really good on her. It had been a few years since I had actually braided anyone's hair, but I wasn't as rusty as I thought I might be. I had grown up with Mari and Macchi playing beauty salon, and of course my lavish locks had suffered many of their stylings, so I in turn had learned to style hair. I later taught my daughters how to braid and do buns and ponytails when they were little.

This seemed to wake Valerie from her depression, for she blinked three times and gave me the strangest look. "Thanks." She whispered, drawing her gaze away from mine. "Let's go." She grabbed my shirt collar and dragged me off to the bathhouse.

Valerie sighed pathetically as she filled the bucket with water and soap. She set it on the tile floor, got down on her hands and knees, and started scrubbing. It was a robotic motion at best. Back and forth with the same long, sharp strokes. She looked and behaved like a machine. Back and forth, back and forth with the brush on the floor.

"I'm sorry." I instinctively apologized, dipping my mop into the bucket, and starting to clean the hard tiled floor of the Onsen.

She halted her mechanic motion for a brief moment to process what I had said. She didn't raise her gaze from the floor to look at me. "You've done nothing wrong." As soon as she replied she was back to her robotic scrubbing motion.

"But Anna wouldn't have interrupted you if I hadn't have complained about not being able to finish on my own." I mopped around the hot spring pool's edge.

"She would have anyway. She's been out to get me this whole month, and it's only half over." I detected a faint, sarcastic laugh in her voice.

"I still think it's my fault. I guess you're not up to going out to dinner tonight anymore, are you?" I held my breath and prayed she still would go. I really wanted to go somewhere alone with her.

Valerie paused to look up, quizzically gazing at me. "Why would I not go out to dinner with you? It's not like anything has changed. Actually, I kind of want to get out of here." I think I saw her smile; her smile was beautiful.

"Yeah, me too." I smiled back at her, but I don't think she saw. She had already returned to her jerky scrubbing motions, gazing emotionlessly at the floor.

I slowed my mopping pace so that I could still work, but think while I was cleaning. My eyes automatically fell to gaze longingly at Valerie, scrubbing the floor. 'You know, if she cut and dyed her hair, and got some of those contacts that changed your eye color…she'd look just like her… Only Ivy wasn't that thin. Sure she was thin, but Valerie is almost skin and bones. Doesn't she eat enough? Ivy never really ate anything either, but she wasn't that anorexic. And Valerie seems more depressed than Ivy was. Ivy was always so…energetic and saucy. Well, up until the end anyway, she was.' I let my gaze wander over every part of Valerie's body. I took in everything from her unscarred thighs to her gracefully arched back as she scrubbed the floor. I tried not to look down her shirt as she leaned forward, giving me a clear view.

"What _are_ you thinking about?" Her voice shook me from my fantasizings.

I blinked several times before realizing I had stopped mopping completely and was staring at her, resting my chin on the mop handle. "Uh…nothing!" I coughed nervously and looked away.

"Of course you're not." She smiled wryly at me, giving me a look that said that she knew _exactly _what I was looking at and thinking. "You're such a pervert; I don't know why I like you so much."

"You like me?" A disbelieving look came to my face.

"Did I say that out loud?" She shrugged it off, casually smirking.

"I do believe you did." I smirked back, slowly approaching her.

Valerie stood, placing her hands on my shoulders. "Whoops." Hormones took over and in a matter of seconds we were centimeters from each other's lips. "Hao?" Her voice deepened to a desperate whisper.

"Yeah?" I could feel her warm breath on my lips.

She giggled playfully. "Close your eyes…"

I did as she said and waited for a kiss or something, but it never came. What she did instead made me gasp, sharply intaking a breath, and causing shivers to run up and down my spine. All of the sudden a bucket of cold water splashed me in the face. I opened my eyes and glared at Valerie as she laughed at my wetness. "Why you little…" I growled.

She only laughed and berated me. "That's what you get for thinking dirty thoughts about me."

"Is that so?" I picked her up and slung her over my shoulder.

"HEY! WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING!" Valerie squirmed and panicked as I carried her over to the bath.

"Make sure to hold your breath." I advised sadistically, throwing her into the water.

Seconds later, she broke through to the surface, completely soaked, and with see-through clothing. "You are so dead Asakura!" She fumed.

I loomed, looking her over like a horny vulture, and not even bothering to be discrete about it. "Oh really. What are you gonna do about it?" I made a point of checking out her chest.

"You perverted—grrrr!" She stood up, grabbed me by my belt buckle, and pulled me into the water almost on top of her.

"AHHH!" When I surfaced, she was laughing her sides off…up until when I dunked her underwater. A full out water war ensued. It was at least fifteen minutes later until we had to stop the slapping and the splashing and pulling each other under water. She leaned up against the side of the bath panting. I leaned up on the wall beside her, equally out of breath. The chemist rest her head on my chest and closed her eyes.

"Val-erie?" I inhaled sharply. She looked up tiredly into my eyes.

We both tentatively leaned forward until our lips timidly brushed together. Instant electricity flew between us and the kiss automatically seemed to come to life. 'Ivy…' The feel of her kiss was too similar to not be the same person. She seemed to melt into my embrace as the kiss got more intense.

She broke away and gasped for breath. "Actually, Hao…" I nibbled lightly at her neck, leaving her lips alone so she could speak. "I'm…not really…"

"HAO! VALERIE!" Anna glared angrily down at us. I immediately took my hand out from under her shirt, and she let go of my pants zipper.

"Anna!" Valerie looked a mixture of shocked, confused, and embarrassed that her cousin had caught us making out.

'At least it wasn't one of my daughters.' I stared up uncomfortably at my sister-in-law.

"I told you two to clean this room, not start some kind of kinky make out session!" The blonde's cold gaze pierced through my skull, incinerating my insides.

"Anna…" Valerie pleaded.

"No. Go get changed into dry clothes and then meet me in the kitchen in ten minutes. No exceptions." The blonde-headed demon stormed out of the bathhouse, only to peak her head by in seconds later. "And Hao, keep your hands to yourself."

I snuck a quick look at Valerie. She cracked a smile back at me. We both broke out into sidesplitting laughter. "She really is out to get you!"

"I know! God Anna, I'm not some dumb teenager anymore; I don't need her approval if I want to kiss someone. She's not my mother." The chemist sent a mock death-glare at the doorway even if her cousin had already left.

"You call _that_ a kiss! I think that was a little more than just a 'kiss'." I teased, poking fun at her.

She looked at me as if I was plotting something. "What do you mean?"

"Oh, I think you know what I mean." I gave her 'the look' back.

"I haven't the foggiest." She denied.

I didn't bother hiding the fact that I rolled my eyes at her. "OH _really?"_

"Really."

"Who had their tongue half-way down my throat, then?" I challenged.

She instantly retaliated; I knew she would. "Uh! No, no, no! That was YOU with _your_ tongue down _my_ throat!" It seemed as if I would be getting the heated argument I wanted out of her.

I retorted. "I think not."

"Fine. Be that way. Where were your hands the entire time then!" You could almost see the flames in her eyes; the cold embers, long left unheated over the years were almost the roaring fire that they once were back before we were married.

"The question, Val, is where were _your_ hands?" I remained icy cool, keeping my calm, as she lit up like a roman candle soaked in kerosene.

"Oh no, you are NOT turning that around on me!" The Kyôyama woman resorted to physical abuse and shoved me.

I hadn't been prepared for that, so I toppled over, completely losing my balance. Not that she shoved me hard, but being shoved while standing in a pool of water was slick, so I slid more than stumbled backwards. "You just can't keep your hands off of me can you?" I chuckled at her expense.

"That's NOT the case! I swear, I will—" My lips cut her off in mid-threat. At first she struggled, but totally submitted to me when I forced her up against the pool wall. 'Just like old times Ivy…' I teased her a little with my tongue before pulling away, leaving her wanting more.

She gave me a 'What the hell? Is that it!' look. I smiled my manipulating grin and nuzzled her neck. "Anna said she would give us ten minutes. I don't think girls are capable of getting ready in that amount of time…especially since you just wasted five minutes arguing with me."

"She also told you to keep your hands to yourself; then you go and molest me!" Valerie steamed as she climbed out of the Onsen.

"Is it really molestation if you enjoyed it?" I climbed out after her.

She kept her back to me as she reached for a towel. I could tell she was blushing some bright shade of red. She always turned away when she didn't want me to know she was blushing. "Are you like this with all women?"

"No, only you. I don't have to be this way with other women because any other woman besides you would have been in bed with me several hours ago." A well-aimed towel hit me square in the face.

"Unfortunately for you, I'm not that easy…not like the other sluts you sleep with."

I pretended not to be phased by her hostility. "Right…you know you want to though. No woman can resist me. Oh, I get it! You just don't want anyone else to know that you want me! You know, there's a door inside my room that connects to the inside of yours. If you want, I could sneak into your room tonight, and no one would have to know. Yoh says your bed is the most comfortable in the house, and I'd really like to give it a try. What do you say? I'll be sure to make it worth your while."

Silence. She didn't even bother arguing. Of course I hadn't _really _meant a word of it; I was just being perverted to annoy her, thinking that maybe I'd get to see her angry. She was so beautiful when she was angry. I didn't think that she'd take it so seriously, or badly for that matter. I took a few hesitant steps toward her, not sure what to make of her silence.

"Valerie?" Nothing. "Val?" Nada. "Ai?" Zip. "V?" Zilch. "Ivy…" My last call was almost a whisper, an entreating plea carried off into the wind with the growing softness of my voice. If she heard, she ignored me.

"You know, I really didn't…" I let my voice trail off as she undid the buttons and zipper on her tight blue-jean shorts. "What…are you…" I let the question hang as she let the shorts drop to the floor. My mouth fell open as she easily stepped out of her shorts and turned next to unbuttoning her shirt. It looked like one of Yoh's old school shirts; the white ones that he always left unbuttoned. A lump formed in my throat as she reached the last button and let the clothing article slide to the ground, joining her shorts.

My breath caught in my throat when I got a good look at her. Scars. Not big, but numerous. It was as if someone had cut her open and sewn her up a thousand times over. It looked like someone had been operating on her heart, lungs, and stomach even. The tiny scars were especially prevalent around where her heart should be. 'What happened to you?…'

Valerie picked up the wet clothes lying on the floor and rung the excess water out of them. It seemed almost as if she had forgotten I was even in the room with her. She reached for her towel and wrapped it around her so that I wouldn't see as she shed the rest of her clothing. My mouth was practically watering. Just what exactly did she have in mind? After ringing out her bra, she sauntered right up to me and slapped me hard across the face. Then without a word, Valerie stalked out of the room, leaving me dazed and oblivious to what had just happened.

A quick burst of flames surrounded me and I was dry in a matter of seconds. 'Way to screw it up with her Hao…What was I thinking treating her like the others? She never has been like them…Have I forgotten that over the years?' I let out a defeated sigh and wandered into the kitchen to face my punishment from Anna.

I walked in just as Anna and 'Valerie' were wrapping up an important conversation. "But Anna!" The silver-haired woman pleaded.

"It's not time yet. Don't tell him anything." Anna's words seemed so final that even Ivy couldn't argue with her elder sibling. "Now, go get changed and make sure 'Valerie' is in a good mood to cook dinner."

A nod came from the chemist and then she walked in a depressed stupor out of the room into her bedroom. I pretended to not have heard anything. If it were against Anna's master plan for me to recognize Ivy, then I would continue to play stupid. "Hello Anna. What did you want me for?"

"Oh. You." My sister-in-law looked less than enthusiastic to see me. "What did you do to her?"

"I went a little too far teasing her. I plan to make it up to Val when I take her out to dinner tonight." I reassured.

"About that: you won't be going out. The both of you are under house arrest unless I say otherwise. There will be no leaving unless the little sojourn is cleared by me first." Her heartlessness never ceased to surprise me.

"I thought that you wanted us to get together!" I complained.

"I never said that." The blonde turned her back to me and walked away. "Go make dinner Hao. Valerie should be joining you in the next ten minutes. I'll be back to check up on the both of you then.

Just as Anna had said, Valerie joined me in the kitchen to cook in less than the allotted amount of time. "Val?" I looked pleadingly into her cold eyes, much like her sister's.

Ivy didn't bother looking up from dicing carrots to see my pathetic look. "Yes?" She didn't sound angry. An indifferent emotion filled her voice. It was as if nothing had happened between us.

I didn't exactly know how to react to this. I was rusty at dealing with her after so many years apart. I decided to follow through with the apology plan. "I'm really sorry. I didn't mean to offend you…back in the bathhouse…V?"

"Val is fine, but not 'V'." She scolded lightly, not seeming to hear anything but my nickname for her.

"Did you even hear what I said?" My voice lapsed into a desperate plead.

"It's always times like these when I think of you and wonder if you ever think of me. Cause everything's so wrong, and I don't belong living in your precious memory." She sung in a whisper, just under her breath.

"Wha?" I sent a quizzical look in her direction, but she seemed to be ignoring me. "I—er—Valerie?"

"Hmm?" She looked up and took earpieces out of her ears. "I'm sorry, did you say something, Hao?"

I could have strangled her. There I was, trying to apologize, and she was listening to music! "YES!"

"Well, if you're going to be so snippy about it, then maybe I don't want to listen." She shrugged off my heart-felt apology as if I was trying to talk about the weather.

"SNIPPY! You're the one being snippy! You're always snippy!" Sixteen years and she still knew how to make my blood boil.

"Relax. You know that I don't mean it." Her voice leveled and a pleasant smile graced her lips. She returned to preparing the meal, but kept an ear open to what I had to say.

I stood utterly confused. I had had no idea she was joking. 'Are we really that out of touch? Maybe I don't _really _know her like I use to anymore. Sometimes I just wish I could read her mind…' I had never read her mind before since she had always considered it an 'invasion of her privacy'.

It took me a moment to realize I had gotten lost in my thoughts and hadn't spoken for a good minute. "Oh…um…well…I'm sorry. You know, for what I said. I didn't mean to make you angry."

"Oh, you didn't. I'm just not feeling well, that's all, and I don't know; I'm really spacey today, so my mind's really not all there." She grinned sheepishly; I returned the slight smile. "You've really done nothing wrong." 'Except break my heart you bastard!'

I did a double take. 'Did she just say what I think she said?' "I'm sorry, what!"

"I said 'you've done nothing wrong.'" Ivy replied casually.

"No, after that."

Ivy raised an inquisitive eyebrow at me. "I didn't say anything. There was nothing else."

"Oh. Sorry. Must be hearing things." I smiled softly, returning to the pot on the stove.

She returned the gesture. 'Right. Go on and smile at me like you're totally innocent. Ignore me as I die of a broken heart right in front of you! Do you even care anymore!'

"I do." I looked up to find a very puzzled Ivy staring at me.

"You do what?" She set down the knife and walked slowly forward, inspecting me.

"Care." I stated.

"About?" A cold hand brushed gingerly up against my cheeks and forehead.

"Didn't you say…? I thought…You didn't say anything did you?" I held her hand up against my cheek.

"No…Hao? Are you okay? You're acting really weird all of the sudden." 'He's really hot…but his body temperature has always been above normal. Paranoia and hallucinations are symptoms of…what's it called again? I can't remember what Faust called it. It was that thing that he thinks I have…'

Her mouth wasn't moving, but I could hear her speaking. It suddenly dawned on me. 'Her thoughts.'

'God I can't remember anything about it except it can be fatal. Oh God I hope it's not that! Maybe is some kind of STD he got from sleeping with all those tramps? Serves him right! That will teach him for betraying me like that!...But am I any better? I mean sleeping with his BROTHER! Yoh…I really have no right to blame him that way. It's not completely his fault, but maybe—wow…I feel really light headed all of the sudden…It's like someone's picking my brain. Maybe if I just….' Ivy's eyes glazed over and she stumbled forward.

She practically fell into my arms unconscious. "Iv—Valerie!" I instinctively almost called her by her real name instead of the pseudonym. She was in a pretty easy position to carry; I picked her up and carted her off to her room. The door was unlocked, and I was able to waltz right in and set her down on the bed. Ivy needed to be checked out by a doctor, so I set out to find Faust. At least, that was what I was going to do, but as soon as I turned around, I found Anna standing in the doorway.

"Go back to cooking dinner. I'll take care of her." The elder Kyôyama sister pledged.

"But...she…" I was extremely hesitant in leaving my X-wife.

"She's been like this for awhile. She gets sick off and on, but there's nothing we can really do to help it. She'll be much better when she wakes up; she always is. The best thing you can do for her is to go make dinner. Valerie will be awake in maybe half an hour tops." Anna practically pushed me out the door.

"Right…" I nodded half-heartedly and returned to my post.

Yoh (who had finally returned from his laps after Anna made him run extra) helped me finish dinner, and everything was ready to eat within the hour. I purposely bumped into Anna so I would have an excuse to talk to her.

"Watch where you're going star-boy!" The blonde sniffed indignantly.

"Sorry. I'm a little out of it." I shrugged and set down the dish I was carrying.

"Thoughts somewhere else?" She raised her teacup to her thin, pink lips. "On a certain cousin of mine perhaps?" If I didn't know better, I would have sworn that Anna Kyôyama-Asakura was teasing me.

"How'd ya guess? No, don't tell me—you know everything, right?" She nodded, giving me a half-smile, half-frown. 'She must be a completely different woman in bed, or else I don't know how Yoh could stand her….' "If you know everything, then where's Valerie?" I finally got to the question I had wanted to ask.

"Down in the lab. She's fine now, but someone needs to go tell her it's dinner time." Anna subtly hinted.

"Way ahead of you." I turned toward the basement doors leading down into the lab.

"Don't come back up here without her. You don't eat until she does." Anna instructed.

"Why?" I stopped in mid-step 'What's all this, now?'

"She'll never come up here unless she has to; she's making a 'break-through' on her research, so she won't leave until it does exactly what she wants it to do. Also, she's been working on the same thing for some while now, and it's never done anything that she wants it to. In other words, she'll not come up unless I give her a reason to. So, basically she'll come if you get hungry enough." I thought I could detect a mocking smirk on Anna's face before she looked away from me.

I shrugged it off and disappeared down the stairs wondering how the hell Yoh could stand that woman and her annoyingness.

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Mikau: I liked this chapter. It was a bit 'ishy', but for the most part I'm happy with it. I think the next chapter will be a whole lot better. Thank you all for your reviews! Sorry if I don't respond to many this time.

Thanks To: Hemila-Rose, Touch of the Wind, Andrea Nefisto, haoxivy 4 eva, Danny, yo wuz up, glitter galz, HAO-Addictive, KaZuYa MiNeKuRa, MaiValentinefan, DarkPisces33, My beloved flamer D: (Lyserg must die), IvyAsakura13, and Firebane5.

To Andrea Nefisto: Good luck on your exams! I have testing tomorrow, so I really can't answer your review more fully. I'm so glad that you enjoyed the chapter. Also, I will hate pink until the day I die. I usually dress differently from day to day like you do. I've never tried goth before though. I'd be a perky goth if I were ever to try the goth look out. I had a great time at the dance, thanks!

To MaiValentinefan: I agree, love/hate relationships are so interesting to do. So much fun! So sorry to hear that you lost all your documents. That happened to me once back when I first started writing. Thankfully I didn't lose too much. I really wish we could chat back and forth in long reviews too…I really miss being able to freely converse will all my reviewer friends.

To IvyAsakura13: I have to make this quick since I'm technically supposed to be asleep, but HGHD is a really good fanfiction about Hao getting amnesia and taking on the name Hoshi. The story is called 'Hoshi Ga Hoshii Desu' It means 'I want the stars' in Japanese. It should be on my favorite stories page, so you should check it out if you have some free time. It's one of my favorites. Osorezan is about the first time that Anna and Yoh met. It's hard to explain, but I think someone did a translation of the first three (out of four) tracks on the CD. Go to search, search titles, and type in Osorezan. Thank you so much, but I'm getting better slowly but surely. I hope you enjoy reading those two stories (especially HGHD Hugs 'Hoshi' who is actually Hao).

To Firebane5: Thank you so much! The dance was great, and I'm feeling better. Your reviews are always very helpful to me. You're one of the few that give me really good insight to my own writing as well as helpful advice. I'm just glad that my knowledge came in handy with your story. (Can't wait for next chapter!) Feel free to email me anytime you need any more information. After TBT is over I'm thinking about doing a short Judo fic, maybe jus ten or fifteen chapters. Maybe less. Just to give Judo fans a little insight into her life and how she ended up as the Ivy we all know and love today. I must admit, I really had fun doing the creepy Hao/stalker bit. You can make him say the creepiest things and have it be sort of in character at the moment, you know what I mean? So much fun! Actually, if you want to get technical, Hao didn't steal Judo's _first _first kiss. It was only her first _real_ kiss. (Her _first_ first kiss was with Yoh when they were little, but that's to be explained in my Judo fic.) Anyway, Hao thought it was her first kiss, and Judo didn't really remember Yoh's kiss (for plotline reasons), and that's all that really matters. Someone, I forget who, has been nagging at me for a HaoxIvy wedding one-shot. I think if I do write it (I should say _when_ since I know I'm going to do it eventually), I'll include it as a bonus chapter of either the Thorn or Judo story. Anyway, about Thorn and Akira: I'm not going to reveal to much, but I'll tell you, it's gonna be fun setting them up. Also, I'm planning on having Hoshi and Hana having a lot to do with the relationship. And again, when I first read your review I was in the school library, and when I read the 'lock them in a small room together for a couple of days' I burst out laughing. Yeah, I got a few funny looks, but I'm use to it by now. Lol! .! Thank you so much for the review!


	21. The Truth About Ivy

Mikau: Hello! Mikau's back! This is a very important chapter, and I think it turned out really well. I would just like to apologize to my readers that haven't read Ivy, Shaman Runaway; some of this stuff won't really make much sense, such as the concept of Judo. Oh well…on with the chapter!

**_Disclaimer:_** I don't own Shaman King.

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The Truth About Ivy

A cute looking little girl with her brown hair done up in three spikes (if she would have let it down, it would have hung just below her shoulder blades) stood on tiptoe to see what I was messing with on the laboratory counter. Her hairstyle closely resembled her sister Jun's, and her pants were almost an exact replica of Ren's battle pants. Her little bright yellow tube top was barely held up by her almost non-existent chest. A black choker with a ruby-red heart pendant hung around her neck. Her left calf was heavily wrapped in bloody bandages. "What'cha doin'?" She batted her dark brown eyes at me.

"Same thing I've been doing for the past couple months." I vaguely alluded, picking up a human heart and placing it on the counter.

"Oh." The little Tao girl quickly lost interest. She hoisted herself up on top of an invisible wall and pulled out an orange to eat. "I'm bored."

A teenage girl with shoulder length brown hair looked up from her Shakespearian literature. "Please Judo, there's plenty to do. Listen to music or something; that's what I do. Hey, can you toss an orange over here?" The teen wore a knit black skirt that came down to mid-thigh, a tight red tank top/belly shirt, and black leather boots. Around her neck was the same choker that the little one had. Her lips were painted a disturbing bright red, her favorite shade of lipstick, and a strange backwards '3' was drawn with eyeliner in the bottom corner of her right eye.

"Oh, go get your own orange, Ivy! You're too lazy." Judo snipped.

"Well, maybe I will!" Ivy retorted from her post, sitting atop one of my laboratory counters. "Don't get all uppity with me; I'm older than you!"

"Don't be ridiculous! We're all 33! You just look 15 when I only look 10. You're no older than I am!" All hell broke loose when Judo stood up to her older self. They were like siblings caught in a catfight.

"Children!" I yelled at my younger selves. "Stop fighting!"

"We're not children!" Ivy challenged.

"Oh really, then why are you acting like it?" I bit back at the saucy teenager.

Fire instantly welled up inside of my verbal-jousting opponent. "YOU'RE acting more like a kid than we are. Why won't you just tell him!"

"She can't. Anna-onee-chan said no." Judo stood up for me.

"Since when have we listened to Anna?" The fifteen-year-old bit back at the ten-year-old.

"Well…" Judo couldn't come up with an answer, so she instead switched sides of the argument. "Ivy's right Val, you need to tell Hao before he falls for Valerie and completely forgets about Ivy!"

"Relax. You're both being ridiculous and childish. There's no way that Hao could forget Ivy." I pick up a scalpel and made an incision in the heart. "He's too in love with her. He always will be." I shrugged off my other consciousness' worries.

"Judo's right, you know." Ivy took a seat up on the counter behind me. "He's slowly falling for you and forgetting me. I mean he totally pounced on you this afternoon when you were cleaning the Onsen."

"Don't be foolish. He was making out with _you_. I remind him a lot of you." I tried to quell my younger self's anger.

She would have none of it. "I disagree. I want you to get your paws off my husband, and work on making us a new body so that we can straighten this whole, stupid Valerie mess up, and I can get back to my marriage."

"Technically he's not your husband yet." Two inquisitive sets of eyes turned to Judo as she peeled her orange. She blinked twice at the unexpected attention. "Oh, so you guys are listening to what I have to say now? That's new. Anyway, as I was saying, Ivy married Hao when she was sixteen going on seventeen, and this Ivy that we have right here is only fifteen. So, technically Hao would still be this Ivy's fiancée." Judo blinked again as we kept staring at her. "That's all I had to say; you can go back to arguing now."

"Anyway," Ivy rolled her eyes at Judo's observations and continued verbally assaulting me. "Keep your mitts of my fiancée! And his brother for that matter! Yoh is married to my sister, and I don't want you messing up their marriage, slut!"

I ignored her. What could I say to that? 'When you grow up you're going to turn into me'? Truthfully, it had really hurt me, what she had said. I felt like I had failed myself. It made me feel like I had betrayed and let myself down.

"Aw, Ivy…don't you think you're being a bit harsh?" Judo scrutinized. "And a bit of a hypocrite?"

"What precisely do you mean by that!" Ivy glared heavily at the little Tao.

"Well, nothing I guess…except for maybe: look at me everybody! I'm Ivy, and I'll let any random guy stick his tongue down my throat, but God forbid, if my fiancée tries to get into my pants, I'll run off and almost marry his brother!" Judo openly mocked Ivy.

The look in Ivy's eyes was murder. "Oh. No. You. Didn't. You did NOT just call me a slut!"

The Tao smiled smugly back at the younger Kyôyama twin. "You said it, not me."

"Really? Well at least I'm not fickle like you are." Ivy retorted. "I'm Judo, and one minute I think Hao is dreamy, but the next I tell my older self to marry Hao's brother Yoh cause I have a huge crush on him too!"

Insults and bad impressions flew back and forth between the two. I smiled out of the corner of my mouth. 'Was I ever that young and stupid?'

"WE HEARD THAT!" Before I knew what had hit me, I was included in their miniature war. Oranges were thrown, chemicals were carelessly knocked over, and things got broken. The tests I was doing on the heart were almost completely forgotten as I got lost in fighting childishly with the other two facets of myself.

I was surprised when they suddenly both stopped almost simultaneously. Judo shrunk in fear and clung to Ivy's arm. "He's coming."

"That bastard…What does he think he's doing? Shoot…" the anxious teen gave me a warning gaze. "I make my dislike of you no secret; don't mess my life up…or else." With that she disappeared.

Judo looked me over quickly, clearly panic-stricken. "Gotta go. Get rid of him fast, and don't do anything I wouldn't do." The little girl started to fade back into the corridors of my mind, but reappeared fully at the last second. Judo pulled my top up and adjusted the rest of my clothing to cover more skin. "Be careful."

I was left wondering what the hell was going on after she disappeared—well, up until _he_ appeared in a short puff of flames.

"Hello Ivy." Lucifer greeted happily.

"Hello." 'No wonder those two split….' "Can I help you?" I picked up some of the vials that had been knocked over in Judo and Ivy's little fight and cleaned up some of the spilt chemicals.

"Umm…Yeah…You have a date tonight, right?" He picked up some broken shards of glass and tossed them into the trash. His voice was hesitant. That wasn't really like him at all.

"Yes." A bright light filled his eyes; he smiled happily, but the light dimmed and the smile evaporated with my next words. "Hao asked me out to dinner tonight when he woke up this morning." I halted my cleaning and looked quizzically at him. "Why?"

"Oh…um…no reason. Really it's nothing. I was just hoping that maybe you had remembered. I was kind of just kidding myself to think that you would…I…well have fun." A kind of choked up look adorned his face. He slowly backed away from me, picking up some small pieces of shattered glass.

"Wait…what did I forget?" I placed a worried hand lightly on his shoulder.

"No, it's nothing…really. I forgive you. It wasn't that important. I had just hoped…but that was really stupid of me wasn't it?" Lucifer seemed to be talking to himself more than to me. "Why would you remember? I should just quit fooling myself and accept that you don't love me." The devil broke free from my grasp and cleared away more empty vials that I had left out on the counters.

"Lucifer…" I looked him over quickly thinking that maybe something about his appearance would trigger a memory. Light brown hoodie, green pants, long mahogany hair pulled up into a ponytail, and dark chocolate eyes. Sure he was dressed a little differently, but there was nothing to clue me in to what I had forgotten. "Please, just tell me…I really can't remember, and I have a feeling it's more important than you say it is." I started to put away some chemicals and solutions that were carelessly left out.

He shrugged and reorganized the various vials and bottles I had left sitting in random positions around the lab. "Really, no. It's not important to you at all."

"But is it important to you?" I countered, accidentally brushing my hand up against his when reaching for a bottle containing Sulfur.

This question seemed to get to him. Lucifer paused and looked up at me, his eyes full of sorrow and well-contained lust. "Actually, to me, it's more important than my life."

"Then TELL ME!" I shrieked. I was sick of him suffering silently.

"You'll just feel guilty if I do tell you. I won't bother you with my problems. You really don't need to worry though. I'll be fine; I really do forgive you, it's nothing too major." He was lying. I could tell he was lying.

"Lucifer! What the heck is your problem! Just tell m—" He placed a finger over my lips to shush me.

The finger was replaced the next second by his lips. I didn't give in very much to his fiery passion, but I did kiss him back some. He pulled back and gave me a somber smile. "Today is Wednesday in case you forgot. Have fun tonight on your date." He started to disappear in a thin fire-like film, but he stopped when I grabbed his wrist.

My eyes widened as I finally got what he had been hinting to the entire conversation. "Lucifer! I am soooooo sorry! I completely forgot! I was so busy with Hao being in the hospital and everything that I forgot about our date tonight…"

He sent another sadistic smile my way and nodded. "It's okay. I already said I forgave you. I'm glad you remembered though on your own without me having to come out and say 'You forgot that you promised to remember our date tonight.' I'll see you Ivy."

"No! I'll go tell Hao that I can't go with him tonight. Technically you asked first, and I _did_ promise that I wouldn't forget, and I owe you a date, so—"

"—Really, it's OKAY. You and I both know that you would rather go be with Hao than me. Don't inconvenience yourself because of me. Really, I'm in no position to be asking you out anyway. Thanks though."

I grabbed at him again as he turned to leave. "Wait! Tomorrow at seven o'clock, you and I are going to get breakfast. Meet me down here in the lab at seven."

"Really?" Hope returned to his eyes.

"Really. Look, I'm writing it down on my hand! I swear on my grave that I won't forget this time." I took out an ink pen and scribbled on my hand.

His smile was still sadistic as he grinned fondly at me. "I'll be here. We'll see if you will too."

I opened my mouth and was about to say something when a voice echoed down the stairwell. "Valerie!"

Lucifer rolled his eyes at Hao's voice. "Living with him now, are we? Tell me Ivy, what's it like for your body to be having an affair with your husband?" He disappeared just as Hao walked into the room.

"Valerie?" He paused in the doorway, looking puzzled. "I thought I heard someone in here with you."

"I…I talk to myself…whenever I'm doing experiments, that is." I suddenly felt like I had to hide things from him. He would probably be upset if he found out that his X-wife was going out with the devil. 'Why am I so jumpy all of the sudden?'

"Oh…I thought…Never mind; Anna wants you to come up to dinner." He took a step past the threshold into the actual lab part of the room.

"Really?" I hastily made an effort to look like I was doing something important with the heart lying on the countertop. "I thought that we were going out to dinner."

"About that," Hao hesitantly closed the gap between us and came to stand next to me, "Anna says we're both under house arrest until further notice….Neither of us can leave the house unless we run it by her first."

"What! That's insane!" I couldn't believe the nerve of my sister. How was that helping anything! I whipped out my little scalpel and cut into the heart.

"That's what I said—by the way, what _are_ you doing?" Hao looked a bit paler than usual as I dissected the human organ.

"Research." I replied quickly.

"Oh…and where exactly are you going with this research that you're doing?" He looked over my shoulder in disgust at the cold mass of tissue lying lifelessly on top of the counter.

"I'm creating artificial life. Got a problem with that?" I held my breath and awaited his disapproval.

"That depends."

"On what?" I held the scalpel just above where I had first made the incision.

"What you're trying to make. Are you, like, trying to make artificial _human _life? 'Cause I don't really think I approve of that." Hao leaned up against the counter and shuddered as I sunk the knife back into the heart.

"No, I'm not making an actual person. That would be cruel. I'm just making a working body. I've got all the body functions and everything down so far except that I can't make a heart beat or blood flow through the veins. I don't understand what I'm doing wrong…I've been stuck for awhile now, almost a year, on making the blood and heart work. What I'm doing right now is going into the heart and checking out how it works. As soon as I can make the heart and blood work I can finish the body. Then all I need will be a soul."

"So theoretically speaking, could you use the soul of someone who's been dead for awhile now?" He suddenly showed more than just a vague interest in my work.

"Yes. Actually, that's what I plan to do. My main goal is to bring back someone from the dead." I was careful not to specify _who_ incase he got any ideas. I picked up a small vial filled with a thick green substance.

"So once you're alive again are you going to go back to your husband?" The vial in my hand broke when my grip on it tightened. Glass shards stuck into my skin.

"Yes. If he'll take me back after I've been dead for so long." He had figured it out so easily. 'I'll have to be more careful from now on. Anna will kill me if he finds out. He's smarter than I thought.'

Hao took my hand in his and pulled out the embedded particles of glass. No blood came out of the wounds. "So you really don't bleed?"

I shook my head. "And my nerve endings don't really work very well. I didn't feel that at all."

As if it had suddenly occurred to him, he looked suspiciously at me and asked. "That's not _your_ heart that you're looking at is it?"

"Hmm? Oh! No, no it's not _mine._ Mine is still in my chest; I do take it out from time to time and try to fix it so that it will work, but I can't get it to beat without blood, and I can't get the blood to work either so…." I shrugged my failure off.

"Good…that would be kind of creepy if that was really your heart that you were chopping up." Hao shivered as chills ran the length of his spine, and the blood drained a little more from his face.

"Squeamish Hao?" I tried to control my fit of giggles.

"Well yeah, when you've got this random human heart just sitting out on your table poking it with a knife!" He shuddered at the thought.

I just laughed all the more. "I can't see how you can murder so many people with your bare hands and then get upset so easily by my bad habit of leaving body parts lying around."

"Hey! I can disembowel a person with no problem, it's when other people are cutting up organs that I have trouble." He defended.

"Right." I rolled my now-green eyes.

"So is that why you have so many scars on your body? From taking out different organs and messing with them?" Hao started a somewhat different subject.

I stared blankly, trying to think of when he could have seen the scars from the many operations and experiments. "How did you know about my scars?"

My x-husband suggestively eyed me, and was probably in the middle of some dirty thoughts he shouldn't have been having considering that we were no longer married. "I saw them when you were striping for me in the bathhouse."

My face turned bright red. "I was NOT stripping for _you_!"

"Then who were you striping for?" He was still the same fifteen-year-old pervert after sixteen years.

"I—! I wasn't stripping for anyone! I was only getting my wet clothes off! You're taking this out of context; why would I strip for you anyway!" There was no fighting him. If he was convinced that I was trying to seduce him, then there was no changing his mind.

"Suuuuure….Deny it, but I know you were coming on to me. I didn't show any signs in wanting to undress you, so you stripped in front of me to see if I'd take the hint. I don't think I'm doing anything tonight if you want to…well you know." I couldn't tell if he was messing with me or if he was serious.

"Hao!" I was blushing again.

He interrupted before I could say more. "What! You've already slept with my twin! What's the difference!"

'Is that all he wants…to sleep with me?' I remained quiet. 'I guess we really are back to square one with our relationship...'

"Well, whatever, that was the sexiest thing I've seen in a long time. It really makes me miss Ivy…."

'Maybe sex is all he wants from Valerie, but he definitely still has feelings for Ivy!' I drifted off into my thoughts.

"Um, Valerie?" The fire shaman tentatively tried to get my attention.

"Yeah?"

"Close your eyes." I did as instructed. "You said that your nerve endings didn't really work well, and I was wondering…can you feel this?"

I gasped as his fingers nimbly caressed the upper inside portion of my legs. "YES!"

"Just wondering!" He ducked as I threw a punch at him.

"Pervert!" I took another swing at him. That missed too.

"Sorry! I just…. Just sorry I guess." He smiled sheepishly.

I rolled my eyes and turned my back to him. "Whatever. Just…don't do it again, okay?"

"How did you die?"

The question took me by surprise. "W-what?"

"How. Did. You. Die?" He repeated slowly, looking me in the eye.

"I…" 'Think of something quick!' "Impalement."

"Really." He wasn't buying it.

"Yeah, a sword almost right through my heart." 'Well…the first time anyway. This will never fly.'

"So it was murder then?" He humored me by going along with what I had said.

"I suppose so." 'That was weak. Who supposes that they were murdered? You either were or were not.' "Look, can we not talk about this?"

"Sure. You don't have to talk if you don't want to. Talking about death is hard. I've been through several deaths." He smiled and took a seat on the stool on the other side of the counter. I continued my work on the heart. "I really miss her…"

"Hmm?" My eyes looked up and locked with his gaze.

Hao's eyes became glazed over as he talked freely about what had been tormenting him for the years I had been gone. "There were supposed to be three of them…triplets, two girls and a boy. We had the names for the girls: Hoshi and Thorn, but we were still debating what to call the boy. Ivy wanted something like Sora, but I wanted to name him after a friend of mine a thousand or so years back, Yukio. We didn't decide up until it was time to put the name on the death certificate: Akeno. I have no idea where she came up with that.

"Apparently she had known she was going to die if she went through with the pregnancy…during one of the tests Luca had done, he had found something wrong. He told her that if she aborted the pregnancy then that she would save her own life, but she would be unable to have children. She didn't tell me, and I assume that she threatened Luca into not telling me either.

"On Christmas Eve she went into labor; right around midnight Hoshi was born and Thorn soon after. Then she told me that she wasn't going to make it. I really didn't understand at first, but she explained that she had known and had gone through with it anyway. She didn't tell me because she knew I wouldn't take it well. She was right; I was pretty devastated. She gave me a few instructions for taking care of the kids and 'what to do if'. I remember I was crying the whole time; she was pretty torn up too. I also remember she was in a lot of pain. I held her hand to entire time. It didn't end quickly…I sat and watched the life drain out of her. It was about an hour before it was finally over. Neither Ivy nor the third baby made it.

"After she died she didn't go directly to Heaven; she intended to stay behind and help me raise the kids as a ghost. I could tell that she wasn't herself though…she was already so detached from the world even after having just died. She wanted to stay, but…I just couldn't let her stay and deteriorate like that. I told her to go; she put up some resistance at first, but eventually agreed. She said she would come back, but I know better than to hope so. Once a soul goes to Heaven it can't come back.

"Thorn grew up hating her mother because Ivy wasn't there. She was convinced that Ivy didn't stay because she hadn't wanted children in the first place. Thorn convinced herself that Ivy could have stayed if she had wanted, but instead 'left' us. I still don't think Thorn understands that Ivy would have withered away if she had stayed with us as a ghost. Ghosts just aren't meant to linger on in this world. Hoshi, on the other hand, grew up in love with her mother. Ivy was everything that Hoshi aspired to be. Hoshi had read her mother's diary and had tried to model herself after Ivy. Along with some bad influencing by me, that's what led Hoshi to be so sluty. She didn't really understand Ivy's motives, but instead only saw Ivy as this 'sex goddess'. She tried too hard to be like her mother and wound up messing things up for herself. Thorn actually turned out more like Ivy than Hoshi did, and Thorn was trying desperately NOT to be like her mom. It was really stressful for me to watch them screw up their lives and know that I couldn't do a thing to stop or at least help them.

"I started drinking again, and that eventually lead to waking up next to random women in the morning. There were some times where I had it under control, but recently it's gotten really bad. I guess it took waking up in the hospital for me to take a hint to stop. I've been a horrible father and a dishonest husband.—Hey…why are you crying?" Hao halted his speech when his eyes refocused on me, tears running steadily down my cheeks.

I couldn't speak, but I knew he didn't expect me to. I knew he could tell when I did and did not feel like talking. That was one of those times when words weren't needed. I rested my head on his shoulder and let him wrap his arms around me, our tears mingling together. "I think you're a wonderful father…and an amazing husband." I softly whispered into his ear, my voice shaking.

He let go of me and sat down on the floor with his back against a counter. "You think so do you? Well thanks, but I'd have to disagree."

"Don't deny what is true." I sat down in between his legs and snuggled up against his chest. "You know I'm right." I must have fallen asleep listening to the quickening beat of his heart, for I only stirred a little when Anna came down into the lab and put a blanket over us, and the next morning when I woke, we were still in the same snuggling position.

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Mikau: Well there you go. Smiles widely now, who saw Ivy's death in childbirth coming? Better yet, who knew that Ivy had been dead for the sixteen years she was away from Hao? I kind of alluded to Ivy being dead back a few chapters in Hao's flashback where they were in the hospital naming Akeno. Did you notice that the nurse never acknowledged Ivy's presence in the room? (ex: "Excuse me, Mr. Asakura?") I really liked that part. You might want to go back and reread that flashback in Chapter 17: Ivy. It'll make soooo much more sense now…well, hopefully. I like the part with the nurse being kind of afraid of Hao. Since he was talking to Ivy before the nurse came in, and since Ivy was a ghost, and since the nurse wasn't a shaman and couldn't see Ivy, she thought that Hao was crazy for talking to himself. Wow…I ended up talking more about a previous chapter than this chapter…Oh well. This chapter was fun to do. So now Ivy has three different aliases: Judo/Ivy/Valerie. Hey, I just noticed that 'Valerie' has seven letters, and if you add the number of letters in 'Ivy' to the number of letters in 'Judo', you get seven! So in all logic, Ivy plus Judo equals Valerie! LOL! Wow…I'm really acting silly today….Well, more plot twists to come, and a super surprising/shocking ending is only ten or so chapters away. (HA! Watch me make up the number of chapters I have left like I know. Seriously, I have no clue how many chapters are left. There could be ten, there could be twenty. There could be five for all I know! I have no clue how many more chapters it will take until I get to the final chapter.)

Thanks To: HAO-Addictive, Touch of the Wind, Hemila-Rose, MaiValentinefan, KaZuYa MiNeKuRa, DarkPisces33, Andrea Nefisto, Sonseray, yo wuz up, Katie-juliett, haoxivy 4eva, Firebane5, Strawberry, LisaTheHedgehog, IvyAsakura13, and Danny.

To Andrea Nefisto: Hello! I'm much better, thank you. I'm glad that you enjoyed the chapter! I have to make the reviews quick (it seems like I'm always saying that…), but sojourn is a fancy word for a short journey. Also, Hao is aware that Val is Ivy, but is waiting until Ivy is ready to tell him. On a final note, I SHALL NEVER LIKE PINK! NEVER! Ahem…Lol! Thanks for the review!

To Firebane5: Thank you so much for your huge reviews; I really do appreciate them, though I'm not sure I deserve all the compliments. That thing you said about Anna wanting to get freebooters out of her house was hilarious and so true! That really does seem like something Anna would do. About the Judo fic, the sad part is that you're probably right about the amount of chapters. LOLOLOLOLOLOL! I'll probably end up with about 50 chapters on this fic too. I sat down and outlined the rest of the fic, and I had 21 main headings with several subtopics each. Man I was sooooo wrong when I said that this fic would only have 20 or so chapters. I'll probably add the wedding one-shot at the end of this fic, but I'll probably post it a week after I post the Epilogue to this fic. Which of Shakespeare's plays did you see! I loooooooove Shakespeare! So sorry about you being so overworked with school; Hugs you I know what you're talking about. I get my first quarter grades next week, and on Tuesday I start my new courses. I lose my free period, and gain a PE course and a History course. I hate PE (because the teachers make us run, and I don't know about you you're probably some dreamy track star, but I was NOT made to run. I just don't have tolerance for torture. I could do sit-ups or jumping jacks no problem, but I just cannot run long distances! Sorry for boring you with my rantings.), and I'm going to have tons of junk to do for History. Sigh…oh well. Looks like the both of us are going to be super busy. I hope your load gets lighter my friend because mine looks like it might just double. Good luck with getting to work on your story! I'm patiently waiting for the next chapter, but I can't wait too much longer. Thank you so much for the review!

To LisaTheHedgehog: Hello! Glad to have you back! Sorry if things are a bit confusing, but Hao knows that Val is Ivy, but he's playing dumb because he heard Anna's little conversation with Ivy when Anna told Ivy not to tell Hao anything. So basically Hao is suffering and waiting until Ivy's ready to tell him. There will be some more HanaxThorn (just a little), lots of HaoxIvy, and maybe a bit of YohxAnna. Thank you for the review!

Mikau: Well, I sat down and outlined the rest of the fic today, and I have 21 main headings with several subtopics each. That means that there might be a lot more story left. I'm really no good at guessing how long one of my stories is going to be.

PLEASE REVIEW!


	22. Date With Destiny Dance With Death

Mikau: Hello! This is a pretty quick update considering my recent update speed. I'm feeling a lot better, but now my friend Matt is sick with what I just had. Poor guy. Now I feel guilty for getting him sick. I really don't have much to say this time. Not much action this chapter; it's sort of a transitional chapter. Hopefully more next time.

**_Disclaimer:_** I don't own Shaman King.

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Date With Destiny; Dance With Death

There are no windows in the laboratory since it's underground, so for once light streaming into the room did not wake me up. Instead, the sound of glass shattering as it hit the ground was my wake up call. I jumped and conked heads with someone. A soft groan emerged from the mass lying underneath me. My eyes slowly slid open and my x-husband was the first thing that I saw.

"Mornin'." He greeted pleasantly, sitting up.

"It's too early." I pushed him back down and lay my head back on his chest, pulling the blanket tightly around us.

"Aww come on, wake it up!" A small, high-pitched voice barked at me. "You two have had all night to sleep; what were you doing all that time? Never mind. Knowing Hao, I don't want to know all the kinky things you were doing. On second thought, the poor woman has a right to be tired."

I sat up and gazed curiously at the little Jack Russell puppy that had knocked over the empty glass container. I glared silently at Hane.

"Shh, Hane. Nothing happened." Hao smiled at his pet. The dog simply rolled his dark eyes.

"I find that hard to believe Onii-chan." I looked up to find Yoh standing in the doorway, smiling pleasantly at us. "Morning Valerie. You look terrible! Your eyes are red, and your hair is all disheveled and—"

"—You really know how to charm a girl Yoh." I glared playfully across the room at my brother-in-law.

"Sorry…" The younger Asakura male smiled sheepishly and rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "Uh…well…Anna told Hane and me to wake you guys up, and now that you're up I have to go run twenty miles."

"She's going easy on you today? How unlike Anna…" I mused.

"Yeah…she's been sort of moody lately. I don't know why, but I'm sort of glad that she's been in a better mood." Yoh smiled lazily as he left to start his run. Seconds later he ducked back into the lab and tossed a scroll at Hao. Hao caught it skillfully, but sent a 'What the hey?' look back at his brother.

Yoh caught Hao's glance and explained. "That's your chore list for today. Anna wants all of that done by breakfast or you don't eat."

Hao opened the scroll and his jaw dropped as the parchment reached the floor.

"We have to do all this by breakfast!" I looked incredulously at my sister's husband. "But it's seven o five right now, and I was supposed to meet a friend for breakfast five minutes ago!" I begged.

Yoh looked knowingly at me. "Anna knows. _Hao_ has to get all of those chores done by breakfast time. Valerie, you're free to go to breakfast with your friend."

I positively gaped at his words. "I don't have to help? Yoh, is Anna pregnant?"

Yoh flushed. "I…uh…honestly don't know. All I know is what she told me. She said, 'Give this list to Hao to do before breakfast or he doesn't eat, and tell Valerie to go have fun with her friend. I don't want them doing chores together today since yesterday when I left them alone for two seconds they were on top of each other.'" My cheeks turned a soft shade of cardinal red. "Well that's all I wanted. Come on Hane, let's go for our run. Sorry Hao." Yoh sent a sympathetic gaze to his older brother before ascending the stairwell.

"What am I now? Your jogging buddy?" Hane dashed up the stairs after Yoh.

"So who's this person that you're going to breakfast with?" Hao looked me over, seeming a little worried about who I was spending my time with.

"Oh, just a friend…Lucy. It won't take long, and I'll be back to help you with the chores." I promised.

"You better hurry up; you're late." He nodded and kissed me on the cheek before exiting. "Have fun."

"I thought he would never leave."

I jumped at the sudden voice appearing behind me. "Lucifer!" I softly exclaimed, trying not to alert Hao to Lucifer's presence.

"Don't worry, he's too far up the stairs to hear you. Just don't scream." Satan smiled evilly at me.

"Great. I'll make sure to scream loudly when you try something on me." I shot back, feeling like arguing with someone.

"Haha. Very funny. Well, anyway, I'm glad that you remembered our breakfast date this morning. If you want to change clothes before we go, I'll wait down here." Lucifer offered good-naturedly.

"Thank you." I hurried up the stairs to my room, and returned minutes later in blue jean capris and a red tank top. When I returned to the lab, Lucifer had his back to me and was working on something. I slowly approached him and looked over his shoulder. What I saw startled me: a beating human heart lying on the counter where the one I was dissecting had lain the previous night. "How did you…?"

He looked up from his work at me, seeing me for the first time since I had come back into the lab. The heart stopped beating as his concentration was broken. "Oh, this?" He shrugged. "A little Carbon, Oxygen, and Sulfur fix everything."

"I've been trying to get it to do that for almost a year now! How did you make it beat!" I took him by the shoulders and shook him for the answer, not caring how desperate my voice sounded.

"I'm not sure; why don't you get down on your knees and beg me to tell you. That might jog my memory. Or you could agree to be mine, then I'll make a perfect working body for you." I would NOT give in to his demands.

I slapped him hard. "Forget it. I'll figure it out myself."

This highly amused him. "Ivy, you're a mortal, human soul. You can't play God and expect it to work. _I_ on the other hand…_I_ can help you. I can make a new body for you. Say yes now Ivy, this is your last chance before I have to take things into my own hands."

"My answer, for now and ever, is N-O. NO!" My eyes filled with fire as I spit venom back at his stupid, chauvinistic male boasting.

"Fine then." He grabbed my hand and suddenly we were transported right outside the nearest coffee house. He had a different set of clothes on: a light brown jacket with a burgundy undershirt and nice blue slacks.

"How'd you change so fast?" I asked, puzzling over his quick costume change.

"I'm amazing aren't I?" was all I got for an answer. He led me into the building and I picked out a window seat booth.

The green-haired waitress greeted us without actually looking up from her notepad. "Hello and welcome to Moon and Stars Café and Bakery. How may I serve you today?" It was definitely a rehearsed greeting, but I didn't really pay much attention to the words coming out of the person's mouth.

"Lyserg!" I blinked several times to see if the former X-LAW member was only a figment of my imagination.

The green-haired man, who I had at first mistaken for a woman, looked blankly at me. "You look sort of familiar." I had forgotten that my hair and eye colors had changed. "But I know who you are…" Lyserg hissed like a cat a Lucifer. "Hao…."

My companion sniffed indignantly at the confusion. "Actually, I'm Lucifer. NOT Hao."

"And I'm Ivy." I supplied.

"You changed your hair and eyes." Lyserg pointed out. "I almost didn't know who you were. And so now you're dating the _actual_ Devil instead of that Asakura one? That's pretty sad."

"What about you! Aren't you supposed to be some hotshot detective over in London? What are you doing in Japan waiting tables?" I traded insult for insult.

"I'm working undercover." The Englishman frowned.

"Nice apron." Lucifer couldn't help but throw his two cents in.

"CAN I HELP YOU?" I could tell Lyserg was trying to contain his anger, but he couldn't help from raising his voice.

I knew better than to keep teasing, so I let the subject die, and I ordered. "I'll have a plain bagel, toasted, with cream cheese; a hot chocolate, lukewarm, with whipped cream; and a fresh orange."

"I'll have a strawberry croissant, a tall Caramel Macchiato, and an apple." Lucifer too placed his order. Lyserg nodded and went to prepare our food.

"You and Hao looked pretty cozy with each other this morning." Lucifer openly spoke his mind. "It seems like you two are getting back together pretty quickly."

"I don't think so. Actually, I'm pretty sure that things are going nowhere." I sighed and glanced out the window. It was still early, and the sky was wrought with gray clouds. "It's going to rain."

Lucifer followed my gaze to the clouds, supporting his chin on his hand. "Do you seriously hate being with me that much Ivy?"

"Huh?" I blinked and looked up, meeting the mourning look in his eyes. "No! I don't mean it like that!...I only meant that…it's going to rain is all." The clouds took their cue and released the moisture that they had been holding in.

"You Allures and your accuracy in weather prediction." The Hao look-alike rolled his eyes and a small, sly smile returned to his face.

"I hope your food is to your liking." A flustered Lyserg begrudgingly set down our breakfast and forced a smile. "Have a nice day Sir., Ma'am."

"Hey Lyserg, just what are you working undercover on anyway?" Lucy teased the green-haired waiter one last time.

"If you must know, I'm tracking down a murdering rapist who's targeting fifteen to seventeen year-old girls with brown hair. The only mark he leaves on his victims is a backwards '3' in the bottom-right-hand corner of the girl's right eye. Even though he rapes his victims, we've got no DNA on this guy. You know anyone who would do that Demon?" Lyserg's cold gaze seemed easily reflected by Lucifer's cool façade.

"No, no one I know. Do let me know when you find the sick bastard." Lucifer's smile made me feel sick to my stomach. I couldn't help but think how evil he looked when he grinned.

Lyserg nodded and hurried off to attend to his other duties. No one else was really in the small café since it was still early, and it was raining.

My fingers subconsciously traced the bottom corner of my right eye. "It has to be some sort of scary coincidence, right?" I tried to relieve my own fears, but it wasn't working.

"Not necessarily. You could be next, Ivy my sweet flower." He ran his slender finger along the side of my face, tracing my jawbone.

"I'm too old…" I tried to talk my way out of it. "He said 15-17, and I just turned 33."

"Ahh…but how old do you look? Ivy, there's not a gray hair on your head. You only know how to make a teenage body since that's all you've been trying to make for the past sixteen years. Who knows…besides you don't have brown hair anymore." Lucifer broke his entrancing eye contact with me and started on his breakfast.

"You're right." I had almost forgotten about the food set in front of me. I too started on my breakfast. "Why can't Anna just let me tell him?" I bit into my bagel and thoughtfully murmured to myself.

Lucifer heard me. "It's not part of the plan. You don't have a proper body yet, so what would be the use of telling him? Wouldn't that be awkward for the both of you? Your body is fragile, and after just one night with him you'd need a new one. It takes about a week to make a new body well. You could make a cheap one in three days, bare-minimal twenty-four hours. Just like when after you had been with Yoh, your body would start breaking down. These Jang-si bodies aren't made to withstand the strains of intercourse. That's why she wants you to wait. It'll be easier for Valerie to control herself since the Ivy fraction of you would murder you if you laid a finger on _her_ fiancée. Ivy wouldn't be capable of self-control around Hao, and therefore she would accomplish less on her research. Trust me, it's better this way."

"I never thought about it that way…. Hey, how did you know about my sister's motives?" I stared down the man across the table from me.

"How indeed? Aren't I amazing? You'll just have to accept that I know everything, Ivy dearest." He smirked as he finished off his croissant.

"Why exactly did you want to spend time with me anyway?" I started peeling my orange.

"Have you ever considered that I enjoy your company? Or maybe I like stalking you? Maybe I'm lost in my delusional, make-believe world where Hao doesn't exist and you love me too?" That look came over his face again, the look where he looked like an abused puppy.

"Lucifer…" I couldn't help but feel badly for him. He had so easily manipulated my feelings and made me feel guilty. I quickly decided that this was a bad power that he had over me.

"Shh…I know…I don't mean to make you feel that way. I don't want to guilt you into doing something that you wouldn't normally do."

"Like sleep with you?" I snapped back to my senses and my guilt disappeared.

"Is that something you normally wouldn't do?" Lucifer teased. "I could have sworn that you didn't have a problem with it…."

"Stop it." My voice turned cold and unfeeling.

"Fine, not another word on that topic; I promise." It seemed as if he was telling the truth, so I let him off with a warning glare. "Hey, do you want to go to the movies or something?"

"Well…I kind of promised Hao that I'd hurry back and help him with some stuff…" I was determined not to let Lucifer trick me into anything again.

"Hao again…" The devil rolled his eyes at my excuses.

"But I guess a few more hours wouldn't hurt, and besides, there is this new horror flick that I wanted to see…" I hadn't intended to stay out until nightfall, but with all the fun things for two people to do in Tokyo…well, I just couldn't help it….

I heard their voices as I sat on the windowsill, waiting: "He's been sitting there for several hours now…do you think we should do something?"

"What would you do Yoh?"

"I don't know…try and cheer him up? He looks so depressed…. Can't we do something Anna?" My younger brother begged his wife as they stood in the hallway watching me. I don't think they knew I could hear them. I probably looked too lost in thought as I stared out the window and waited.

"Stay here. I'll try, but I'm not promising anything." Anna sauntered up to me and sat down beside me on the windowsill. She didn't make eye contact as we both stared wordlessly out into the darkness of the night. "Wow, Hao. That's really sad. One day with her and you're already turning into her lapdog."

For once in the past several hours my eyes looked away from the world beyond the windowpane. "I am not her lapdog." I growled back.

"Oh please. If she told you to jump off a bridge you'd ask 'Which one?'. If she asked you to do a dance you'd ask 'Ballroom or Irish step dance?'. You'd probably even let her put a collar on you with a little bell and everything. Face it, she owns you." My sister-in-law had no idea how right she was.

Still, that didn't stop me from denying it. "You're delusional Anna; I'd do no such thing."

"Well then, why have you been sitting here since who knows when waiting for her to come home so that you can meet her at the door." Anna pressed further.

"I'm bored, so I'm sitting here looking out the window. I never said I was waiting for Valerie to come home." I tried to sidestep her accusations, but I was doing a lousy job of it.

"So you're not upset that she's been gone more than twelve hours with another man and she might not be coming home tonight?" Anna had struck a blow to my heart. I could feel it lurch as she suggested that Ivy might not be home until sometime the following day.

I tried to hide my hurt by muttering, "What do I care, Anna? She's not my wife. Let her sleep with whoever she wants."

"But you love her. You're just too tough to admit that I really cut you when I suggested she may be spending the night with some other man. You really are her lapdog…" A small smile spread over Anna's face. It was a rare sight, and usually meant something really good, or something really bad. There was no real median with Anna. "Don't worry. She has no interest in other men. She's on a pity date, and should be home soon."

"Thanks Anna." She nodded and left, leaving Yoh standing in the doorway, and me still sitting on the windowsill, waiting for Lucifer to bring my wife home so I could kill him.

"Hey aniki." Yoh stood behind me. I could see his reflection in the window; he had something behind his back.

"Hello otouto." I knew he was up to something.

"You look depressed." The younger twin blinked innocently at me.

"I _am_ depressed." I waited for him to do something. I knew he was going to.

Yoh pulled out a ball of yarn and dangled it in front of my face. I ignored the brown ball of fuzz. Yoh looked thoughtfully at the ball of entwined strings before he started to move it around, bringing it closer then further away from my face. My eyes subconsciously followed the yarn as Yoh swung it back and forth, occasionally bumping it into my face. After the fuzzy ball had brushed against my nose a few times, I batted at it with my hand. Yoh ignored my obvious displeasure and continued assaulting me with the stupid knitting material. After awhile I couldn't take it anymore, so I snatched the yarn out of Yoh's hand. He grabbed at it, trying to regain his lost toy, and soon a full blown war over the stupid yarn ball broke out, ending in me on top of my younger brother, straddling him, while restraining his arms with my own.

"What the hell is your problem Yoh!" I glared down at my own smiling twin image.

"Nothing. You'd make a good cat is all. NEKO HAO!" I rolled my eyes and let my brother go.

I returned to my post by the window and muttered under my breath. "God…what am I? A dog or a cat? Stupid Anna…stupid Yoh." I threw the ball of yarn over my shoulder at my twin.

"Hey Hao?" Yoh's voice lost its playfulness and suddenly turned serious.

"Hmm?" I didn't bother turning around to look at him as he sat on the floor.

"You're not mad at me, are you?"

"No. Just never attack me with a ball of yarn again." I rolled my eyes even if he couldn't see.

"Not about that. I know you wouldn't stay mad about something stupid like that…. I'm talking about…. Hao, you're not an idiot. The silver hair, green eyes, and slightly altered voice shouldn't be enough to fool you for long. You know about Valerie. I can tell that you do, and I know that if you and Anna ever…did anything…well, I know I'd be upset with you…so, I'm asking if you're angry, and if you are, will you forgive me?"

"So I'm not insane after all. She really is Ivy." I mumbled, smiling to myself. "I kept telling myself that there was no way it could be possible, but it really is her."

"Her soul, but not _her._ Valerie isn't the Ivy that you remember." My little brother broke the news to me lightly.

"But she could be herself again…once she has a real body and her life back." I mumbled.

"Hao?"

"It's okay otouto. I forgive you." I looked over my shoulder at the relieved look on his face.

"She wanted me to be you. Since we're twins…that's why she picked me out of all the other guys she could have gone to…she misses being with you more than you can know." I took comfort in my brother's words, but he didn't get the chance to say more before the front door opened and in walked Ivy.

She looked exhausted and her cheeks were rosy from the cold and rain. "Hello everyone! I'm home! I'm really tired, so I'm going to bed early." She rushed off immediately to her bedroom, not even hinting if she had noticed the two of us over by the window.

"And just where do you think you're going?" An authoritive voice echoed from the hallway that Ivy had just disappeared into.

"Bed? I'm tired Anna." The allure pleaded with her sister.

"Hao! Get in here!" I complied with Anna's orders. "I want you and Valerie to go clean up the kitchen before you can go to sleep."

"But Anna!" Ivy started, only to be cut off by her elder twin.

"No 'buts'. Hao cleaned the entire Inn today by himself, and you were out on your date, having fun. If anyone has the right to complain, it's Hao. Now, get going; you're not getting any closer to that bed standing around doing nothing."

"Anna, why don't you let her sleep, she's tired. I can do it by myself." I tried to bargin with the she-devil, but there was nothing for it.

"Don't try and talk her way out of this Hao; she's helping, and that is all I have to say on the matter. Go. Now." She turned on her heel and left us to our own devices.

"Thank you." Ivy smiled weakly up at me.

"Don't thank me; I haven't done anything to help you." I shrugged.

"Well at least you tried." She countered. "Let's go. We've got a kitchen to clean."

I grabbed a wet cloth and started cleaning the kitchen counters and tables while Ivy picked up the broom and started on the floor. "So how was your date?"

"I never said it was a date." Ivy stopped sweeping for a minute to look me over curiously. "Who told you?"

"No one had to. It was a bit obvious. Did you have fun with him? You spent an awful lot of time with him." I shrugged off her surprise and pressed the matter further.

"It was okay. It was a pity date." She tried to explain.

"You didn't have to lie to me about it." I acted like I didn't care that much when in reality I was dying to know why Ivy would go anywhere with Lucifer.

It took her a while to reply. "I'm sorry…I didn't want to tell you it was a date because…."

"You didn't want to hurt me." I finished. "I understand. Thank you."

Something in my tone of voice must have made her think my reply was insincere. "Nothing happened Hao. He took me to breakfast, then we went to the movies, and then for a walk around Tokyo, lunch, a little shopping, a little sightseeing, another movie, some other stuff, dinner, and then home. I didn't let him do anything to me…I—"

"—I believe you." I interrupted before she could become even more frazzled.

"Oh…. I thought that…never mind." A cute blush painted her cheeks.

I snuck up behind her and wrapped my arms around her waist. I whispered huskily into her ear, "I know what you thought. I'm not mad, just a little jealous—okay, I'll admit I'm insanely jealous of any man that gets to spend that much time alone with you. Just don't give Lucifer anything that should belong to me out of pity."

"So I'm yours now, am I? You've yet to lay claim to me." She moved my hands further down her waist, and my breathing sped up. "You've got quite an ego if you think I'm giving in to you that easily. I'm not as naïve as I look."

"It doesn't matter how naïve you are. I'm falling fast for you; don't tell me that you don't feel the same way." I felt myself getting more and more caught up in her intoxicating scent and fiery attitude.

"Is it love or lust Hao? I've never been able to figure that out about you." She pushed me further by leaning back into my embrace.

"For Valerie? Lust. The only woman that I'll ever be able to love died sixteen years ago, and my heart is still waiting for her to come back to me." I let my hands wonder to her pant's zipper.

She pushed away from me. "You're too loyal, Hao. What makes you so certain that she'll ever find a way back to you?" I could tell that she was doubting her abilities to reconstruct a working body.

"Don't give up so easily. You're not going to accomplish anything if you don't keep trying." I planted a quick kiss on her cheek and returned to cleaning counters.

She left the room, but instead of heading off to bed she went downstairs into the lab to continue her work.

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Thanks To: Hemila-Rose, Sonseray, glitter galz, HAO-Addictive, KaZuYa MiNeKuRa, haoxivy 4eva, ChibiAzn3, Katie-juliett, yo wuz up, Strawberry, Firebane5, MaiValentinefan, chibigirl, aN1mE rAwKz, and DarkPisces33.

To Firebane5: Actually you're not the only oblivious one. A lot of people were surprised with the latest twist. I tried to make it obvious in a not so obvious way, dropping hints all over the place, but making them subtle hints. I'm glad I did a good job on balancing Ivy's three personas. Poor Val must get huge headaches though. There has been a lot of controversy over Lucifer's motives. Some hate him; some love him. I think he's fun to manipulate to do my bidding. I've never seen Measure for Measure. I was going to read it over the summer, but I got sidetracked. I'd really like to see the Globe Theatre someday. I really hate when teachers ruin things that you would normally like. I think my favorite is either Much Ado About Nothing or A Midsummer Night's Dream. I gotta go do homework. See ya, and thanks for the review!

To DarkPisces33: Sorry that I haven't been writing lately. Since weren't not supposed to respond to our reviewers anymore, I have to be really picky choosey about whom I respond to. Sorry. I guess you're sort of right about the Asakuras being an elemental family. I gotta go, but thanks for the review!

PLEASE REVIEW!


	23. Meeting At The Crossroads

Mikau: Hello everyone! It's been a trying week. I had musical rehearsal almost every day after school this week. I'm completely drained. I had to get a flu shot yesterday; it wasn't really a big deal since I get tons of shots everyday, but I made a big deal out of it so that my mom would buy me some books that I wanted. It didn't even hurt at all, but I still complained, and my mom took me to Border's to get a Chinese to English/English to Chinese dictionary, and a Japanese grammar book. We all know how much I love grammar in English, so now I can study grammar in Japanese! I'm so happy about my new books!

**_Dedication:_** It's been forever since I've done one of these. This one is for **_Shamanbabe_**! Happy Birthday! I know I'm a bit early since your b-day isn't until Monday the 24th, but I don't think I'll be able to post a chapter in between then, so…let's all sing happy birthday!

**_Disclaimer:_** I don't own Shaman King, but I am wearing my own socks today! (It has been soooooo long since I've talked about my socks…)

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Meeting At The Crossroads

"_No Danny…. I said NO…. You will NOT be getting any more 'little favors' from me…. Oh what do I care that your girlfriend is pregnant with some biker guy's kid!... Why do you always come running to me when you screw your own life up!... No! Don't you DARE 'but Hoshi' me! I don't give out free-bees, and I don't take IOUs…. I said don't you 'but Hoshi' me! I don't care if you're flat broke. I'm not cheap. However, I can give you the numbers of some newbies if you want. They're not very good, but they're cheap…. Yeah…. Yeah, Cookie, Candy, CoCo, Chocolate, and CeCe are all pretty cheap if you want something quick…. Yeah, that's right…. Goodbye."_

"Damn those stupid males. All of 'em." I slammed down the kitchen phone and undid my tightly pulled up chocolate-brown hair.

Thorn looked up from the other side of the table at me as I combed out my brown locks. "Who was that Hoshi?"

"Just some, like, totally stupid guy in need of a quick fix. It's, like, nothing you'd be interested in."

"A costumer?" She took a naïve guess. I was surprised my younger sister had even figured out what line of work I was in. I nodded, giving in to her inquiry. "Hey Hoshi? About how much money do you earn?"

I slapped her hard across the cheek. "I don't earn money. People like me don't _earn _anything. No amount of money makes what I do right. If you are having _any_ thoughts whatsoever of entering into my sort of profession, abandon them now. It's not fun, and the money doesn't make it worth it. It hurts, and it's dangerous. I will NOT, under any circumstances, let my baby sister mess up her life like I did. Do you understand me Thorn?" I watched my little sister cower in fear of me. She vigorously nodded her head, showing she had understood me completely.

"I was just curious. I didn't mean that I wanted to become a…a…. Just how much money _do_ you make?" Thorn regained her composure and re-asked about my financial status. I found it cute that she couldn't bear to call me for what I was, a whore.

"Oh. Well if that's all, then I don't suppose that it would do any harm to tell you a little about it." I shrugged off my previous fierceness and my harsh tone returned to a conversational one. "I get a ridiculous sum of money for work that almost any woman could do. The exact sum depends upon the man, and like I told that sleaze-ball Danny, I'm not a cheap woman, so I get paid especially well. As I said before, my job is not fun, I do not in any way enjoy it, and it doesn't add any meaning to my life."

"What do you do with all that money?" The inquisitive youth pressed further.

I smiled in a sort of embarrassed way at her. I had hoped that she wouldn't find out. What I did with the money did not fit my self-centered appearance at all. "There are four banks: one out West in the US, two in Tokyo, and one in Hong Kong. I have four separate savings accounts: one under my name, and three under yours. I put a minimal balance into my account. I'm really only saving enough for myself to buy a mansion, a nice car, and some money to live on when I get too old for my line of work. It's an early retirement fund. The money in your three is for your education, money to support yourself when you get older, money to pay for baby things for your kids, and just basically money for whatever else you could possibly need. You're pretty much taken care of for the rest of your life, but I'm the one with the papers for the accounts and stuff, and you're not getting a cent of it unless you go to college, and don't screw up your life like I did." I tried to ignore the sappy look on my sister's face, but it was so hard to do when she was hugging me tightly yelling 'Oh my God! Hoshi! Thank you so much! You're the best sister ever!' and other junk of the sort.

I pried her off of me and tried to convince her that nothing had changed between us, and we were still sisters and therefore enemies. "Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! I am NOT going soft! I'm still the same, annoying, self-centered, cold, heartless, Hoshi!"

"Riiiiiiiiiight." Thorn's toothless grin called my bluff.

"Exactly. I am right." I took pleasure in out smarting my little sister.

"Wait…what!" My little sister stared blankly back at me.

"Hey girls; what's up?" The disembodied voice of Hana, our slightly older cousin, wafted into the room, followed by his shirtless form.

My twin completely forgot about our conversation and turned to greet the male Asakura. "Hey Hana. Nothing's going on today."

"Hana, like, where's your shirt?" I readopted my Valley-girl accent.

Hana walked over to the refrigerator and pulled out the milk carton. "I just got up and haven't gotten dressed yet." Was his quick explanation.

"It's twelve o'clock on a Saturday morning." Thorn informed the carefree shaman.

"Exactly." The blonde Asakura poured his milk into a glass and took a big sip, virtually chugging the entire glass, finishing it off with one gulp.

"You soooo should have been, like, totally up by now. It's, like, only normal." I raised an eyebrow at my lazy cousin.

"I'm a shaman. I'm not supposed to be normal. Sleeping in on weekends, getting up at twelve, and running off to various places with my friends. For me, _that's_ "normal". Today we're going to Tippy's. It's great. Half the place is an arcade, and the other half is a café; wanna come Thorn?" He shoved the now empty milk carton back into the fridge, and placed his dirty glass into the sink.

"Sure! What time? Wait; will Akira be there?" I couldn't tell if Thorn wanted the Tao boy to be there or not. It was hard to tell from her tone of voice.

"Yeah, why?"

My far more innocent reflection seemed a bit disappointed by Hana's affirmative answer. "No reason. I'll come; what time?"

"Well, it's 12:13 now, I was planning on leaving in seven minutes. If we walk fast, we can arrive by 12:30." Hana moved about the kitchen, eating whatever he saw fit for breakfast.

"Great. I'll go get changed and meet you in the living room at 12:20." Thorn rushed out of the room to change clothes, but stopped just short of entering the hallway. She called back over her shoulder, "Oh, Hoshi, have you seen Valerie? I haven't heard anything explode all morning."

"She, like, fell asleep in the lab last night. I'm pretty, like, sure that she's still down there." I offered off-handedly, going back to the magazine I had been reading before I was rudely interrupted by the phone call from Danny.

"Thanks. I gotta talk to her later." With that my little sister was gone.

"You _do_ know that you're reading that Cosmo Girl magazine upside down, don't you?" Hana sat down across the counter from me, seating himself on a barstool. He snatched the magazine away before I could stop him, and read the title of the book I had been hiding behind the teen magazine. "You know that's the oldest trick in the book, hiding one book behind another. Why would you be embarrassed to be caught reading… wow…I can't even pronounce that."

"It's a college level science text." I supplied "I want to be a doctor, but I really have no chance at it since I doubt they'd want someone like me. I could be a carrier of HIV or any other number of STDs and not know it, so I'm settling for the next best thing: a scientist. Rocket science is usually something not associated with me, so I tend to play dumb. I know a lot more than I let on." I paused for a minute before adding. "Like totally."

"So…I suppose you're completely aware of Thorn and Akira's relationship?" He leaned forward on his stool, supporting his chin on the palm of his hand.

I looked up from my book to reply. "I'm aware that they have a bad one, that is, if they have any relationship at all. Which I do believe is a shame; they would be cute, and even if Akira is a bloody pervert, Thorn could use a man, and she's bound to do him some good."

A cat-like grin appeared upon my cousin's face. "Precisely what I'm talking about. You really look out for your little sister don't you?"

"What kind of big sister would I be if I didn't keep one eye on her at all times? I know all. You're looking out for your friend even though you too have feelings for the girl. I find it very admirable that you refuse to act on your feelings for his sake even if you could easily take her. You know that she'd only resist you a little at first, but that's only because you're her cousin. All you'd have to do would be to kiss her and she'd follow you to the end of the world. She's very innocent, and subsequently, very easy to take advantage of."

"It sounds like you're supporting incest." His eyes filled with extreme interest at what I was saying.

"I might be. I also think that the two of you are cute together. I have no extreme objections to Akira, but I have no objections to you either. Let Thorn pick whoever would make her happiest. I know how badly you want her, Hana." I smirked as he raised his eyebrows at me. "You're fighting within yourself. You want her, but you want her to be happy. You're also afraid of what the others will think; in love with your own cousin…."

I watched as the confused gazed turned to one of utter horror. "How did you…"

"A little party trick I learned from my father." I returned to my book.

"That's no party trick; you were picking sentences right out of my head." I looked up at him as he towered over me, giving me a suspicious look.

"I inherited a limited amount of Spiritual Sight from my dad. I can pick peoples' brains to tell if they're lying and can also pick up a few phrases running through their heads to give me a general idea of what they're thinking and feeling, but I'm nowhere as good as my father. Hao can read peoples' minds like books. Anyway, you wanted to talk to me about setting up Thorn and Akira."

Hana blinked several times before regaining his focus. "Oh, yeah…right. Are you doing anything later around three o'clock?"

"No. I'll meet you at Moon and Stars Café and Bakery. You're familiar with the place?" I barely looked up from my science text to speak with him.

"Yes. I'll meet you there at three." Hana nodded.

A big explosion sounded somewhere underground, and the smoke drifted up the stairwell, setting off the ceiling sprinklers in the kitchen. A loud clap of thunder and a burst of lightening exploded in the sky and it started pouring outside.

I covered my hair from the sprinkler water with the teen magazine I had been pretending to read. Hana just stood there and grumbled to himself about his aunt's lousy timing. "It looks like Valerie's up." I shrugged off the water dripping down from above.

"Looks like." My cousin sarcastically echoed.

"Does it always rain when _Ivy_ is upset?" I waited with baited breath for his answer.

"Yeah, she usually has a dramatic breakdown every three or four weeks. Let's see…you guys and your dad have been here about a month now, right? So she's overdue for a complete meltdown. I hope Hao is at home today to calm her down. She usually starts crying, then she gets edgy, then all the demons in hell break loose when she gets violent." The sprinklers finally shut off and I threw my now soaked magazine into the nearest garbage can. Hana looked back across the counter at me. "Look Hoshi, I gotta go change. It looks like I'm gonna be driving Thorn and myself over to Tippy's. Are you gonna need a ride to our three o'clock at Moon and Stars because of the rain?"

"No. I have my own car. I'll be there. You can go now; I've already got all the information I need from you." A dash of lightening peppered the darkening sky. "Shame about the rain…it was such a lovely day before hand."

Hana disappeared off to change, and, minutes later, left with Thorn to go meet up with their friends. I was walking past the living room when I heard two voices arguing about something or another. I was going to go up to my room to change clothing, but one of the voices was my father's, and the other was one I knew I had heard before, but I couldn't remember the name or face of the guy that the voice belonged to.

"Checkmate." That voice unmistakably belonged to my father. "Pay up Lucy."

"There is no flippin' way!" 'Lucy' screeched. "How the hell did you do that!"

"It's a trick my old buddy Yukio showed me." The smirk on my father's face was evident in his tone of voice. "You remember him right? I believe he passed your way when he died."

"God I hate you. Yeah, but your friend has reincarnated himself again, so he's no longer under my jurisdiction. Unlike you wife." Suddenly I knew who my father was talking with: Lucifer, that evil demon, the Devil himself. "You know Hao, I can bring her back to you. I'll take the girl in Ivy's place, just say yes. This is your last chance."

"Leave Thorn alone." Hao's voice was determined and deadly. If it were I in Lucifer's place, I would be shaking in my boots. "Ivy is perfectly capable of putting herself back together. I don't want you interfering."

"Fine. Be that way." Silence took precedence over the two rivals. "Don't you want to ask me something Hao? About yesterday maybe?"

Hao basically ignored the man sitting across the chess table from him.

"I know from experience that you're no idiot, Asakura. You were bound to notice that she was gone all of yesterday, and when she came home you probably were interested enough in her to ask where she had been. She probably told you that either she had gone out with a friend or some other lie since she didn't want you to know she was with me. Come on Hao, I know you know it was me with her the entire day. Aren't you the least bit jealous that I spend all that time with your wife, but she never seems to have the time to spend with you?"

"That's enough Lucifer." Hao's reply was a sharp, stiff snap, much like an angry dog about to bite. "How did you ever get her to go with you anyway?"

An eerie calm filled the room again. I pressed my back up against the corridor wall and listened in on the conversation through the open door.

"Actually, I don't know why she finally agreed. I suppose she just felt sorry for me. Ivy really does have a big heart." The tone of Lucifer's voice mirrored my uncle Yoh's carefree, lazy one.

"Stay away from her. Stay away from Thorn, and stay away from Ivy—"

"—You're just jealous that she hasn't told you yet." Lucifer taunted, cutting Hao off. "Have you considered that she doesn't want to come back to you? That she enjoys being finally free of you? Maybe she's trying to run away from you again—"

"—I told you to shut up, you bastard!" This was clearly the last straw; I peeked around the corner into the room as Hao lunged at Lucifer. The two grappled, gripping at each other's clothing, hair, and throats. Thankfully nothing got broken, or Anna would have taken it out on the nearest person to her, and that probably would have been Yoh.

My train of thought was broken as Valerie walked briskly down the hallway. She sent a meager smile my way as she passed, headed with a look of urgency into the room where Hao and Lucifer were at each other's throats. She must have heard the commotion from wherever she was stationed in the house beforehand, and had come running to stop the two adversaries before one killed the other.

"What are the two of you doing! Hao! Lucifer!" The scuffle in the other room immediately desisted.

"Hello Valerie." Lucifer's all too innocent voice greeted the woman first.

"You shouldn't be here." Her reply was too quick. Her words were meant to be soft, informing the trespassing party kindly that this was not a place for him to be. She had meant to be kind, but the rapid pace at which the words had flown out of her mouth had dashed all benign meaning out of them. "What I mean to say is…I'm sorry. I didn't mean to sound harsh. I only meant that if Anna finds you here, she'll severely injure you or force you to do manual labor." Valerie tried to redeem her failed attempt at softly letting the demon down; it didn't fair much better than her first.

"You're too kind Val. I'll have my conversation with Hao at a later date. I appreciate it though." The heavy air in the room was instantly lifted as soon as the devil left. He had understood the chemist's underlying point, and did not want to witness Hao and Valerie together, so he had left quickly and quietly without much fuss. He truly was being a good sport about losing Valerie's affections to Hao.

"Valerie…I—" Hao started, trying to explain what the devil was doing in the living room.

"It doesn't matter. He hangs out around here to annoy either Anna or myself a good part of the time. I wish I could just tell him how I really feel about him, but I can't hurt his feelings like that. Especially since he's been such a good friend to me sometimes when I needed to verbally abuse someone to get rid of frustration. Actually, in some way I believe he really is trying to help sometimes, but other times, he really is trying to make my afterlife a living Hell. He wants me to forget about my husband and come with him and be his queen, but I can't forget. That's why I've been working so hard for the past sixteen years to make a new body. I want to go back to my life. I want to be a wife and a mother, and who knows what else…" Valerie seemed to drift off into her thoughts, of course I had gotten use to that along the course of the month I had lived under the same roof as her. "Oh! I'm sorry I have to go!" The silver-haired beauty burst back to life. She also had a bad habit of fading away and then coming back to earth suddenly. "I was making a breakthrough when I came up here, and I really need to get back to it. See ya Hao?"

My father smiled back at the love of his life and nodded, placing a quick kiss on her cheek. "Hurry and get back to your work; you've kept your husband waiting for too long, and if it were me in his place, I'd want you back as soon as shamanly possible."

"See ya." Valerie blushed and made her way out into the hallway.

"See ya." Hao answered back, smiling broadly.

I caught Val by the sleeve as she walked pass me on her way back down to the lab. "I need to talk to you about something important.." I dropped my Valley-girl, hoping that she'd take me seriously like she did my sister.

"Do you want to follow me down to the lab and we can talk there? It would help me out and save me time. Okay?" I followed close behind her, on her tail as she disappeared down the basement stairs into her lab. She walked over to one of the numerous counters and pulled out several vials of sickly colored liquids. She dropped some sort of metal into a green solution and stirred it with tongs. I tried not to gag as the dark green turned bright blood red and the smoke choked me up, depriving my lungs of air. "So what did you want to talk about?" She tossed me a fleeting glance, clearly oblivious to my need for air.

I finished my coughing fit before I could answer her. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm trying to create a stabilizing chemical." She skillfully dodged my question.

I took a seat across the counter from her and glared. "You know what I mean. Why haven't you crossed over yet?"

"You're very observant, a terrific spy," She looked up from her experiment and gave me a sly grin. "And you're a lot smarter than you let on."

"Well, duh. It's physically, mentally, grammatically, and acumentally impossible for anyone to be as stupid as I pretend to be." She was silent for a while, and we traded stares, sizing each other up. "You're not what I expected." I finally broke the staring contest.

"HA! Hoshi, I'mnot what_ I_ expected. I'm surprised that I haven't gone insane yet. There are too many voices arguing with each other in my head, and I'm not the most stable of the three of us. Judo tries to be reasonable, but Ivy's too rash. Valerie is too depressed to do anything about it, and I don't know who I am anymore. I wish I could invent something to split myself into three separate bodies just so I can think straight!" The silver-haired woman before me openly laughed at her sad situation; she smiled as she commented on her decreasing sanity.

"You really are falling apart…you're not the Ivy I grew up thinking my mother was." I wasn't disappointed in her after waiting so long to meet her, but I had to admit, she was definitely different from what I had envisioned.

Valerie set down her test tubes on her chemical racks and sat down to talk with me. "I'm not Ivy anymore. What you see before you is a chopped up, blended, distorted image of who your mother was. I have so many things floating around in my head, and it's very hard to keep the personalities entirely straight. I'm losing myself to the others. Ivy is going to take complete control of this fake body soon. I can't suppress her much longer. Judo has no will to be the main personality, and has teamed up with Ivy to overthrow me, Valerie. I truthfully don't know how I've managed to hold her in for so long already. I'm weaker than Ivy, and am a poor representation of her. Valerie is a shallow shadow of who your mother is, so don't be too disappointed in me. I'm working hard to make a new body for Ivy, and after I accomplish my purpose, I will fade into the bliss of anonymity. I'll escape into the deep recesses of my mind, and I'll never return unless Ivy summons both Judo and myself for advice."

"So you're not my mother." I bluntly stated what I had interpreted from her speech.

"Correct." Valerie didn't bother denying anything. "I'm but a facet of her. I was created to hide her from her husband so that she would not be distracted and fall behind in her work. As soon as the new body is complete, I will be obsolete. Ivy and I have no friendship like the one she has with Judo, her younger persona, so I will simply fade away never to be heard from again. I am of little use to the other two."

"So you'll just vanish, and I'll get to meet the real Ivy?" I didn't like not knowing, so I was determined to milk her for all that she was worth.

"Yes. Once the body is finished, Ivy will become the main persona yet again, and you'll meet your 33 year-old mother." Valerie turned her back to me and mixed some oddly colored things in a beaker.

"Why can't I read your mind?" It was a pretty random question, but I had been trying to pick up at least a few lines of thoughts from her the entire conversation, but I had gotten nothing.

"There's nothing to read. Or maybe it's that I'm thinking too many things at once? I don't know why you're not getting a reading on me. It could also be that I don't really exist, so there _is_ nothing for you to read. You can take it any way that you like." I didn't like this person. She was too aloft and didn't seem to care about anything. She was dead. That woman was no longer a part of the world I lived in, and she wasn't my mother. I didn't like her even in the least.

"What of my father?" I didn't bother masking my disliking of her with my voice. "What do you think about him?"

"I love him."

"And what does Ivy think about this?" I cruelly brought my mother into the discussion.

"She absolutely hates me. She wants me to keep my dirty paws off of him, and to get back to work on the body. Ivy wants to come back to you all so badly, and she thinks I'm trying to take you for myself. She's about ready to strangle me. She's so jealous that she's missed so much time with you and your father. She doesn't want me wasting anymore time. She wants to go home." Valerie's tone completely shifted. The dry, depressing words that had been spilling rigidly out of her mouth up until then exploded with feeling and her voice completely changed. Valerie's voice rose in pitch, and the dull look in her eyes was washed away and replaced by shimmering, glinting, gleaming pools of liquid fire.

It was as if the quiet, sadistic, and depressed Valerie was suddenly replaced by someone completely different. The dried-out husk that had seconds earlier been Valerie was dashed away by a lonely, discouraged soul, fighting to regain her once-treasured life. "I just want to come home! Is that too much to ask! I want my family, my friends, and my life back! I know I've said it so many times before, but now that I've said it again, it doesn't mean it's any less true. I want everything to go back to the way it was! I want my daughters, I want my servants, I want my friends, and oh GOD, most of all I just want my husband!" The silver-haired chemist broke down into sobs. She fell to the floor on her knees and let it all out. Even though she was crying, she seemed so determined to come back and again have the life she had once lived.

Even though she was crying, she came across as strong; she didn't crumple up on the floor as I would have imagined Valerie would have done. She lowered herself into a stiff, yet comfortable kneeling position with her face in her hands and her hair streaming down, tussled about by the woman's quick movements. She sobbed yet kept talking. "I'm sick of this two-bit slut making out with _my_ husband while I patiently wait for her to finish my body! I'm about ready to dispose of her, but I need her to complete the body for me since I have no knowledge of the subject what so ever. I'm fed up with waiting things out, and I don't see why I can't just tell him now! I want to come home so badly…." She drifted off into thoughts and sobs.

I surrounded her in my embrace, freely letting tears slip down my own cheeks. She took her hands from her face and smiled ironically, but lovingly at me. "I'm sorry, we never really got properly introduced…I'm Ivy Kyôyama."

She hugged me back, and I buried my face in her clothing. She was everything I had thought she would be, so much better than that disappointment, Valerie. I was so happy to finally meet her, and I was even happier to learn she was exactly who I thought she was. "Hoshi Asakura. Nice to finally meet you, Mom."

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Mikau: I think this chapter was a little choppy since I did some parts at different times over the week. Sigh…oh well…I'm sure I'm just being paranoid or something again. I was going to write more in this chapter, but it didn't really fit. I suppose I'll have to work it in next chapter. All right, see you all later!

Thanks To: MaiValentinefan, Andrea Nefisto, Danny, glitter galz, yo wuz up, HAO-Addictive, Hemila-Rose, haoxivy 4 eva, Sonseray, DarkPisces33, IvyAsakura13, Firebane5, Kiva Kyoyama, LisaTheHedgehog, and Katiejuliett.

To MaiValentinefan: Hello! Yes, the Ivy that was in Hana's flashback was a ghost. He was really young back then, and didn't really get the concept that she was dead, so now that he's older, he doesn't realize it. I believe I put in somewhere that Hana said that he wasn't really sure what happened to Ivy's body.

To Andrea Nefisto: I will never like pink! NEVER! Glad you liked the chapters! I wish that I had an all anime channel…there's too much American junk on my TV channels. I really wish I got at least the Spanish channel or something. I need something in a different language, and more Japanese cartoons. American shows just aren't as good.

To IvyAsakura13: Hao the cat, Hao the dog, Hao the monkey, or the bear or the bunny! Lol! I actually have a picture of Hao as a cat. I found it yesterday online somewhere. So, Hao knows that Valerie is Ivy, but Ivy doesn't know that he knows. I really like YohxAnna, but this is sort of a HaoxIvy centric thing, so don't expect much. Sorry! I'm happy that you found my words encouraging. I'm not a very good motivational speaker, so…yeah. For Halloween each year my three friends and I go dressed to a theme. We've done Goth gang, gangsters, and this year we're doing seventies. I have a platinum blonde wig, a black tube-top cut dress, boots, and other seventies ornamentations.

To Firebane5: Well, the backwards 3 has its origins way before I had even thought of Ivy, Shaman Runaway as a fanfic. I was drawing an eye, and my pencil slipped when my brother threw a pillow at me. I was about to erase the marks, but then Jordan said, "Hey, what's up with the weird tattoo? It's kinda cool looking…" I looked at it, and decided it kind of looked like an ivy vine tattooed to the side of the eye. I played with it for a while, and finally decided that a backwards 3 with two dots on the inside, and one on the outside looked best. It just kind of happened. I'd really like to see Lyserg try and catch Lucifer. Ha! I wish the poor green-haired guy luck. I don't plan on killing off Lyserg any time soon; there would be no point to it. Basically Hoshi's hatred of men comes from Lucifer, but there are other reasons too. Thorn doesn't have the 3 on her; Lucifer didn't rape her, so he didn't mark her. Lucifer really has a thing for Asakura women though… The cat thing is just sort of a weird obsession, though Hao did put some of his furyoku into Matamune's physical body after Matamune first died so that he could have a physical body again until he used up all of his furyoku, but that's a little off subject. Anyway, Hao was sort of in a depressed mood when he forgave Yoh, so when he cheers up later, he might bash his brother's face in. I really liked Hao and Yoh's relationship better in the manga. The manga completely robbed Hao of his kindness (and sanity), and they made Yoh hate his brother. In the manga, they went out for coffee together, hung out together, Hao took a bath in the Onsen with Yoh and his friends (Opacho came too, and it was adorable!), Hao and Yoh even had a sleep over together and slept in the same room, mere feet from each other and didn't kill one another! Why did the anime and manga have to be sooo different in such a bad way! Sure Yoh wanted to stop his brother from becoming Shaman King, but he would have never gone so far as killing him like he did in the Anime. I like representing the manga version of the HaoxYoh relationship. The Anime is just too harsh. Sorry, I kind of got a bit off topic there. I'm going to try and bring Hao's followers back into the story because I really miss the comedy I could get from them, and God knows that this fic could use all the comic relief it can get. A pregnant Anna could either be really funny or really scary; it depends upon how you look at it. Anna giving people group hugs would definitely be a scary aspect of the deal. I'm planning on centering the next chapter or two on Thorn and Akira and Hana and Hoshi. I'm trying to shift the focus between the couples because if I center on one too long, then I get accused of forgetting about the other set. So complicated is the life of an authoress…Oh well, I love writing, and today I just got a new idea for a story that I've been thinking about for awhile. Whenever I get to that story, I feel it will be really great. And funny. And sad. Thank you for your review!


	24. Falling Raindrops

Mikau: Not my best, but an adequate chapter. It took so long because I was at the hospital a few days ago, (I'm okay now, don't worry). I was going to make this chapter longer, but I think it would be better if I did it in two parts. Hope you like the chapter; so sorry that you had to wait so long.

**_Disclaimer:_** I don't own Shaman King or Grease.

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Falling Raindrops

I sat with the side of my face pressed against the car window, and watched the rain stream down the glass pane. I could feel the vibration of the car through the window as the soft, soothing rhythm threatened to lull me to sleep.

"You seem tired." My older cousin smiled, but kept his eyes on the road.

"Rain makes me sleepy." I let my eyelids close slowly, following a raindrop's descent down the water-spotted glass. The pane fogged over a little when my warm breath touched its cold surface.

"But you're being really quiet. Usually you would be talking even if you were falling asleep." He lowered his voice in hopes that I wouldn't hear what he said next. "Most of the time you even talk in your sleep, too."

"I heard that. If you weren't driving, I would hit you soooooo hard. I do NOT talk in my sleep." I growled, lifting my head from where I had been resting it.

"Easy Thorn, you know I was just kidding." Hana's smile only increased in size as I glared harder. "You're very cute when you're angry."

My cheeks lit up like I had just downed a bottle of hot-sauce. 'Oh god he didn't mean that! He couldn't possibly have meant it in the way I'm thinking of.' I tried desperately to change the topic. "Uh—Hana? Is Akira really going to be there?"

"Probably. I'm not exactly sure. He usually comes, but sometimes he's antisocial. It's understandable though, given his family history…. He never did get around to telling me why he moved away from his folks…" Hana paused and snapped out of his little ramble. "Sorry. I probably shouldn't have said that. I just know Aki's going to kill me now." The blonde laughed openly at himself and the thought of his friend murdering him in cold blood. "I suppose all ya need to know is that Akira's had some hard times with his family. He really doesn't get along with his dad or his granddad, and he hasn't seen his little sister in forever. Jade's 14, just a little younger than Ivory's 15 and a half. He's only met his little sis a few times, but they really hit it off. Kinda like Ren and Jun…or Pilika and Horo, or Hao and…well maybe the twins aren't the best example of 'hitting it off'. They did try to kill each other. Yeah, well I'm rambling about things I shouldn't be again, and we're here anyway, so I'm just gonna shut up."

I shook my head fondly at Hana. He really was amusing the way he would just go on and on about anything, even things that shouldn't necessarily be said. _'And he looks so dreamy in the rain…'_ 'Where did THAT come from!' I shook my head vigorously.

"God, what's your problem Asakura?" A harsh, deep voice interrupted my inner conflicting thoughts. I looked up to see Akira holding an umbrella over my head so I could get out of the car without getting soaked. "Are you coming, or are you just gonna sit in the car by yourself?"

It was a sweet gesture, but his taunting tone killed all the kindness in it. "I'm coming." I bit back bitterly. "You're the one with the problem! I always tell you to call me Thorn, but you never EVER do!"

"Fine. THORN. Hurry it up; it's cold, and I don't want to be here." He glared as he led me over to the door of Tippy's Café and Arcade.

"If you don't want to be here, then why are you?" I didn't bother to mask the disdain dripping from my voice like venom from a cobra's fangs.

"I came because I knew it would annoy you, and my sole goal in life is to make yours a living hell." He smiled menacingly down at me.

"I knew it!" I jabbed an accusing finger in his face.

Hana saw the hostility flying between the two of us, so he came over and tried desperately to smooth the ruffled fur. My cousin led me away from the Tao. Akira glowered at the Asakura as Hana guided me in the opposite direction, his arm around my waist. "Relax Thorn, he was just kidding."

"_Sure_ he was." I glanced backwards at Akira, and he childishly stuck his tongue out at me. I decided to act civilized and ignored him, resting my head on my cousin's shoulder.

When we finally got inside, we found Ivory and Makoto alone together in a booth. "Hyia!" Ivory jumped out of her seat, knocked me out of the way, and pounced upon Hana.

"Hey there Ivory." My blonde relative and I greeted from the ground. I got to my feet and smiled at Makoto, who was reading some sort of book.

"Hello Hana-kun, Thorn-san, and Akira." The bespectacled bookworm smiled shyly at the three of us as we took our seats at the round booth. Ivory on the end with Hana next to her, followed by me, Akira, and Makoto on the other end.

"Hey, did you guys here about the musical this year?" Ivory was the first to suggest a topic to talk about.

Makoto shifted uncomfortably on his booster seat and looked up from his gigantic dictionary/thesaurus/encyclopedia thingy. "I did, but which one is it again? I didn't really pay attention because I can't sing to save my life. Here, listen: Lalala!"

Hana and Ivory covered their ears in such an exaggerated way, and pretended to be in pain. Hana teased his best friend: "God, Makoto! Please stop! I'm gonna go deaf!"

"I agree! I agree!" Ivory went along with the charade. "Oh God in Heaven; make it stoooop!"

Makoto glared knowingly at his gang of friends. "Thanks guys."

"You're welcome." Two shamans with sickly, sweet grins chirped in unison.

Akira broke through the light, joyful atmosphere with his pessimism. "You all are so juvenile. I don't even know why I let people see me in public with you."

"You're seen with them because they're your friends. I can't imagine why they'd want to be seen with _you_, though. You're, like, the most annoying person I've ever met." Everyone looked up to see a woman standing to the side of our table. She wore star-studded, bright orange boots, a tight, black leather mini skirt, and an orange halter-top with a baby-blue star on the center. Her long reddish-brown hair was pulled up in a messy bun, and her bright blue eyes stood out from the rest of her outfit.

"Hoshi! What are you doing here!" I was shocked to see my sister standing there. What could she possibly have wanted with me?

"Relax. I, like, came here to check the place out. I don't mean any harm little sis, chill." My twin tugged lightly on her orange, fingerless gloves as she smiled sweetly, taking a seat between Hana and me.

"Hey Thorn, are you going to introduce this hott chick to the rest of us?" Ivory eyed my sister lustily.

"Uh, yeah. She's my twin, Hoshi Asakura." I replied lamely, still trying to get over the fact that Ivory had called my sister a 'hott chick'. "Hosh, this is Ivory, and that's Makoto. I believe you already know Akira?"

"Yeah, I know Akira all right." She glared spitefully at the Tao sitting next to me. "Bloody pervert. Anyway, like, nice to meet you Ivory." She waved pleasantly to the Usui girl. Next my sister turned to Makoto, and, reaching across the table, kissed him on the cheek. "And it's a pleasure to meet you too, Makoto."

The Oyamada nearly fainted; his cheeks turned bright red. "The pleasure is all mine."

"I'm sure. Hey Hana." Hoshi smirked deviously at our cousin, letting her hand rest on his thigh under the table so no one would see her slip a piece of paper into his hand.

"Hey Hoshi. Long time no see." He opened the piece of paper without anyone noticing and read her message.

"Like, tell me about it. So, I, like, heard that you all were talkin' about, like, the school musical. Isn't it Grease this year?" My sister quickly got down to business, slipping into her Valley-girl accent.

"Yeah, I heard that too." Hana replied enthusiastically, whispering something else into my older sister's ear. "Are any of you trying out?"

"I'm not." Makoto blushed. "I'll probably just do lights crew or something else that involves technology."

Ivory perked up, instantly speaking her mind. "I'm gonna try out for Jan of the Pink Ladies. I could soooooo do a good job with her!"

"I refuse to take part in this foolishness." Akira rolled his eyes, shutting himself off from the conversation.

"Aw, come on buddy! It'd be fun! Don't you at least want to try out? You know you can sing. You sing better than I do, and that's saying something." Hana coaxed his reluctant friend.

"No Hana. There is no way you're talking me into it this time. I refuse to be swayed in my opinion that Grease is a ridiculously stupid waste of time. Plus, who would I try out for? Kenickie?" I could tell that Akira was starting to consider it. Hana was slowly wearing him down.

"Actually, I was sort of thinking Danny." Hoshi stepped up to chip further away at the Chinese shaman's resistance. "You know, that girl that you were talking about at the hospital is a close friend of mine, and she said that she's trying for Sandy. If you go for Danny, you could end up playing opposite the girl of your dreams. Plus, the two of you would get to make out on stage." My sister had a way of talking people into things.

Akira soon agreed to try out for the leading male roll. "Maybe Danny wouldn't be too bad to play."

"What about you sis?" I asked tentatively. I knew she wouldn't have brought up the musical if she wasn't planning on being in it.

"Me? Isn't it, like, obvious? Here, I'll give you a hint: 'I got so many hickeys people will think I'm a leper.'"

Hana quickly responded with the next line. "'A hickey from Kenickie is like a Hallmark card—"You care enough to send the best."'"

Hoshi answered back, "'You pig!'"

"'I love it when you talk dirty.'" Hana fought off laughter as Hoshi pretended to slap him like in the movie. I had only seen Grease once or twice, but it had been mere weeks before hand, so I recognized the scene from the malt shop.

Makoto smiled fondly at his best friend and my sister. "I take it that Hoshi is trying out for the part of Rizzo, the leader of the Pink Ladies, and Hana is trying for Kenickie, the leader of the T Birds?"

Both Asakuras nodded. Hoshi winked seductively. "Damn right. I think I'd be perfect for Rizzo."

Akira rolled his eyes and muttered something under his breath. "Yeah, you wouldn't even have to act since Rizzo is a slut just like you. Figures that a hooker would want to play the hooker."

I didn't even see what it was that Hoshi threw at him as it whizzed past my face, barely skimming my nose; blood spewed from Akira's. I couldn't tell if it was broken or if he just had a nosebleed. "Bastard." My sister hissed.

Hana, in an attempt to restore peace to the group, turned his attention to me and asked, "So Thorn, who are you going to audition for?"

All eyes were on me, waiting for my answer. I blushed and hid a sheepish smile behind a menu. "Actually, I can't sing." I pretended to be extremely interested in the drink choices. I was grateful when the waitress came to take our orders; minutes later she returned with our food.

"Lair." My sister smirked triumphantly, having caught me in my obvious attempt to escape the subject of the musical. "I grew up with having to listen to you sing like an angel; I know that you can sing."

I blushed heavily at being caught. "I'm telling you Hosh, I can't sing in front of people like you. Therefore, I CAN'T sing."

Ivory tossed a French fry across the table at me in a flawed attempt to cheer me up. "Aw, come on Thorn! I could give you lessons on singing in front of people! I could teach you to audition and all sorts of other stuff!"

"Oh I don't think—"

Hana hastily cut me off. "—Oh, why not! It'll be fun! You'll love being in the musical!"

I blushed deeper as Makoto and my sister started adding reasons why I should try out. I was receiving so much attention; other people in the restaurant were looking over at our table. I was starting to want to give in to just to make them stop attracting so much attention.

What really got me was when Hana looked me in the eye and pleaded, "Come on Thorn, do it for me?"

My heart skipped a beat, and I could feel my stomach tighten. A small "Okay." slipped out from between my lips.

"Perfect. Then you'll be auditioning for Sandy." My sister took advantage of the moment and made up her mind that I would be auditioning for the leading role.

"WHAT! But…but…I can't be Sandy!" I tried to argue my way out of stardom.

"Why not? You have the "good little girl" personality for it. You'd be fine." Akira joined in trying to convince me. "What are you scared? Chicken?"

"I am not!" something inside me burned with hatred for Akira. I couldn't believe the jerk had the audacity to tease me like that. "You know what? I'll do it! I'm going to audition for the role of Sandy, and I'm going to get it." I stood up and stormed off, leaving money for my food that I hadn't eaten. I knew that Ivory would probably finish off the soy-burger and diet cola anyway. I just really didn't feel like talking anymore; being anywhere near Akira was starting to get to me, and I needed to escape him.

A hand caught me by the arm as I was about to walk out the café door. I looked slightly over my shoulder into the worried eyes of my cousin. "Thorn…it's raining. You can't walk home; you'll get soaked and catch a cold. Let me drive you."

"Thanks, but no thanks Hana. I'll be fine; it's just a little water."

He nodded grudgingly, but let me go. "Be careful."

I stepped outside into the rain and started my long trek home. The rain didn't bother me. It felt good to get drenched in the icy water, and it gave me an opportunity to think. I had been walking for a good ten minutes, but I still hadn't reached Funbari Onsen. I had somehow managed to get myself lost, and I had instructed Isabelle to stay home, so there was no one there to guide me. I had gotten myself into yet another mess. 'I should have taken Hana's offer.' I sat down on the curb and watched water run into the storm drain.

"Excuse me, Miss? You look lost." I looked up from the wet pavement and lay eyes on a man that looked to be a head taller than me. He had dark crimson hair, and crystalic blue eyes. His pants were plain navy slacks, and he wore a burgundy tank top under his brown jacket. He smiled kindly at me.

I was more than a little startled to run into him again since I hadn't heard or seen anything from him since the Masquerade over a month earlier. "Lucifer?"

"That's right." He nodded encouragingly, sitting down next to me and holding his umbrella over the both of us. "I see you're wearing the necklace I gave you."

My hand flew to my neck to grasp the emerald heart choker that I didn't remember ever putting on. "It appears that I am." I blinked back at the person who seemed to have appeared out of nowhere.

"So what exactly are you doing all the way out here Thorn?" Lucy took off his jacket and draped it around my shoulders.

"I was on my home, but I don't exactly know the way…" I blushed lightly. I hated to appear stupid or incompetent.

"I could walk you home if you'd like. I know this town pretty well." A small smile lit up his face and he put an arm around my shoulders.

I looked away, unable to control my blush. "I don't want to inconvenience you." I insisted.

"It'd be no trouble. I have nothing better to do, and it would be an honor to walk such a beautiful woman home in the rain." He stood up and offered me his hand.

"Well…I suppose I could at least let you walk me home." A victorious smirk overcame his face; I got a bottomless feeling in my stomach. Somehow his look scared me.

"Perfect. Let's go." I took his hand and let him put an arm around my waist. The soft fall of rain was lulling me to sleep, so I rested my head on his shoulder. He didn't seem to mind in the least.

"You've grown even more beautiful over the course of the month." Lucifer's comment woke me from my blissful drowsiness.

"I'm sorry?" I looked up at him with a puzzled expression. "You must not really mean that. I don't see how people find me pretty…"

"I didn't say you were pretty; I said you were _beautiful_, and YES I do mean it. Thorn, I'm falling in love with you. Do you not understand? But you wouldn't since you've never been in love have you?" An ironic smirk painted itself upon his lips.

I felt a strong urge to kiss him. "I think I am in love."

"But not with me right?" Sorrow dripped heavily from every word.

I opened my mouth to answer, but a voice from behind me cut me off. "Thorn!" I looked back over my shoulder to see Hana walking my way. When I looked back in front of me, Lucifer was gone, leaving only a small bouquet of red roses.

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Mikau: Not much to say other than I'm being buried in make up work from the school I missed, and that the next chapter will most likely contain loads of incest in the second part of it. I must get back to my homework. See you all later! HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!

Thanks To: IvyAsakura13, glitter galz, Andrea Nefisto, HAO-Addictive, Sonseray, yo wuz up, DarkPisces33, Danny, haoxivy 4 eva, Kiva Kyoyama, Katiejuliett, Firebane5, LisaTheHedgehog, and thoughtless dreamer.

To Andrea Nefisto: The phrase 'I don't take IOUs' that Hoshi used should be "I don't take I owe yous." IOU is just an abbreviation. Also 'Yukio' is an OC of mine from another fic that I'm going to write. He's a friend from Hao's first life.

To DarkPisces33: At the very beginning or I,SR I didn't plan on Lucifer being a character, but about halfway through he kind of donned on me. The angels came right after I started working on the fic. It was right around a month after I was diagnosed with diabetes when my grandma died on April 1st. I was riding in the backseat of the family van and we were on our way to the graveyard in the funeral procession when the idea for the rest of the story came to me. Come to think of it, I was working on the chapter Therapy Session right then. I still think that's my favorite chapter.

To Danny: I'm sorry that I used your name as the name of Hoshi's costumer. It wasn't intentional. 'Danny' is also the name of this creep I know from musical practice who always hits on me, so when I need a name, I picked his. And yes, I know that you're a girl. You told me; Darcie, right? Or is it Darcy?

To Firebane: Thank you so much for all your helpful comments. Did you get my email about your fic? The one about Mikihisa? I just hadn't gotten a reply, so I was just wondering. I hope I helped some. Anyway, about the HanaxHoshi think, yes, a little, but I'm usually big on hinted pairings, so it doesn't really surprise me that it came out that way. Next chapter is where they plot to get Thorn and Akira together. Did you see how they kind of tricked the two of them into auditioning for the leading roles of the musical? This was a fun chapter to write, but I want to get back to HaoxIvy AQASP. Yukio is my OC from another fic that I'm going to be writing as soon as I finish up with my Ivy series. He's a friend from Hao's first life, but even though he's reincarnated, he won't be showing up in TBT (there is however a character named after him at the end.) The reason I brought him up in this fic is because I love hinting at my future work in the fic that I'm currently writing. Some examples of that are back in Ivy, Shaman Runaway, Raphael mentioned his sister Façade when he first met Ivy. Façade has her own little fic that I'm going to be writing (it's the same one that Yukio is in). Also, back when Hao and Ivy were thinking of names for their children in the last chapter, someone mentioned the name Gale and how it could be spelled two ways. Gail for a girl, and Gale for a boy. Gail also has her own fic coming out after the Façade one. In the fic, Gail posses as a guy, spelling her name Gale. (it's going to be a collaborated fic with my brother's OCs: Blade, Ivan, and Isaac.) I think in my fic American that I finished for Tippy-chan I made some reference to Ivy's name. Then, at the beginning of this fic when Lucifer tells Ivy that Hao is remarried, I used Anlita for his new wife's name. Another name reference I used, but I don't think anyone caught was back in I,SR. In chapter 56, the day before Yoh and Ivy's wedding, Ren says to Ivy: "Let go of her old life she says…Just like she let go of being Judo; now she's letting go of being Ivy…My sister, Judo Tao. Anna's sister, Ivy Kyôyama. Dearest sister, what shall we call you now? Will it be Thorn Asakura?" I don't think that anyone noticed Thorn's name in there. Anyway, the bottom line is that I love referring to my OCs in fics that they aren't in. Moving on, Val is really hollow. I intended her to be more like a machine than a woman. I think I did a pretty good job accomplishing that because unlike Judo, Valerie has no back-story. She just simply is; she came into being for one purpose, and after that she will be no more. She realizes that, and knows that since she has no other purpose she will cease to exist when she completes her mission. That's sort of why she is so depressed. She hasn't bothered to acquire a real, filled out personality like everyone else since she figures she won't be around long enough to do anything with it. She really is a two-dimensional being. I feel sorry for her that she doesn't get her character developed very much like my other characters do. About Hoshi not being able to read Val's mind: Hao was reading Judo and Ivy's thoughts. Pretty much a lot of Judo's, but Val doesn't have a real mind to read since she technically doesn't exist. There's going to be more about the younger generation next chapter, but it's mainly ThornxHana. Thank you for your review!

PLEASE REVIEW!


	25. Wedding

Hey everyone! This isn't a TBT chapter. It's a one-shot of Hao and Ivy's wedding day. I also have an important announcement. I will not be able to make any more major updates until Nov. 21st because I am in the school musical, and we have rehearsals everyday after school until 10:00. I hope you enjoy the one-shot! Thanks and see you on the 21st!

-Kara

Ivy _Hao _**3rd Person**

**_Disclaimer:_** I don't own Shaman King.

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I seriously felt like I was about to faint. My pulse was rushing and my head was positively reeling. I was breathless as I stood in front of the mirror. It was just like before…sure the dress was different, and the man too…but it was just like the first time. I was getting cold feet again just thinking about it.

I remembered it like it had happened mere moments before the fact, but it had been almost two years since my first death, back when I was about to marry Yoh. All the sudden everything came rushing back to me:

Hao was so angry…Yoh too had a definite fiery look in his eyes. They were trying to kill each other over me. Hao had knocked Yoh to the ground, and was about to delve his flaming sword straight through Yoh's heart. I had gotten in the way.

I jumped as a sharp pain jolted my heart. Suddenly I was back in the present, standing in front of a dressing mirror in the basement of a church. My breath sped up and my skin grew clammy. I could almost feel the blood draining from my body and staining the pure white outfit I was wearing.

I gently ran my fingers through my hair. It hadn't changed in the past one and a half years; it was still the same coffee color and shoulder length. My eyes were the same two bottom-less pits of dark onyx, and my lips retained their devil's red hue; Anna had painted my nails to match for the special occasion. I turned and gauged my reflection in the cold glass. My gown was a little more covering than the one I had worn for Yoh, but not by much.

The skirt was floor length, but had a split up to the upper portion of my thigh. My top was skimpy as usual and looked like a white version of my normal red number. A few good inches of my stomach were showing. 'That's probably why he wanted me to wear this gown…' I had borrowed some jewelry from my elder Tao sister Jun, and Anna had lent me her white sandals.

Jun, Pilika, Tamao, Anna, and the Hanagumi had worked hard on my wardrobe and all the decorations and plans and things, so I didn't have to worry about anything. Somehow I still wasn't as calm as I should have been. Something was wrong, but I just couldn't put my finger on what.

I gave myself one last turn and inspected myself thoroughly. 'I wonder what Hao would think?' My eyes again fell upon the huge split up my thigh. 'Never mind. I _know_ what Hao would think: "How long before I get to take that off of her!" Stupid pervert…' My cheeks noticeable reddened.

Suddenly it donned upon me. "I'm getting married…" I whispered to myself. 'And then I'll be his wife, and tonight he'll want to…Oh. My. GOD.'

I don't know how long I was out, but I woke up on the floor in my twin's arms. Jun and Pilika were helping to fan me, and Tamao was pressing a cold rag to my face.

"Ivy?" I blinked as Anna's voice broke through the blurry haze of unconsciousness. "Ivy." My sister called again from a world that seemed beyond my reach. My body just didn't seem to want to wake up.

"Wh-what?" I struggled to sit up on my own. My body felt weighed down by lead. My head seemed almost empty except for air, so I lay back down again until I could see straight. "What happened?"

Anna made a hand gesture to shoe everyone away so that we could be alone in private. "One minute we were getting you ready for your wedding, then the next you were on the floor, out cold. How do you feel?" She felt gently of my forehead and my cheeks.

"I can't do it Anna." I blurted out, trying my hand again at sitting up.

"What is that suppose to mean?"

"I can't get married to Hao." I quickly rephrased my statement.

"Don't be an idiot." My sister rolled her eyes and switched which hip she had baby Hana on. "You love him, he loves you, you'll get married, have kids, end of story."

My eyes widened in fear. "I can't."

Anna helped me get to my feet. "Don't be stupid. Any woman can do it; you're no exception. What do you think is going to be a problem?" She carefully straightened my dress.

"I can't. I'm sorry, but I just can't do this. I can't be his wife! It's sooo different from being his fiancée! I couldn't be a mother either. I have no clue how _you_ do it Anna." I wrung my hands, trying to keep them from shaking.

My elder sister paused to examine me. A knowing smile slowly lit my sister's face in the smuggest, most condescending way possible. "You're afraid of finally giving him any."

"No! That's not it!" I tried not to faint again as she hit the nail on the head.

Somehow she knew she had gotten it exactly right. "You're afraid of how it'll effect your relationship, and you're scared that he'll treat you differently."

"Don't be stupid Anna!" I tried to deter her, but there was no stopping it now that she had begun.

"You're afraid that he'll lose interest once he's gotten your virginity." Suddenly she didn't sound like she was teasing me anymore. "You're petrified of going any further…You love him so much and you're scared of losing him after he gets what he wants. I can tell from your eyes that you're scared of not measuring up to his expectations after making him wait so long…"

My sister paused to look me over. She put an arm around my waist to support me. "Don't worry…if Hao is the kind of man I think he is, then he's never going to leave you. You've both fought too hard to not end up together now." Her warm smile clamed me some, but I was still worried. "I'll be back. I have to go check in with Yoh."

I nodded and sat down on the stool in front of the vanity. I was alone yet again. I was searching the room absent-mindedly for something to do when I spotted a door. Curiosity got the better of me and I got up and opened it. It led up a stairway to outside. My breath caught in my throat and I quickly shut the door to freedom.

"No." I firmly reprimanded myself. "I'm not running away from him again…" I cast a longing glance back at the door. 'Oh God Hao I'm sorry…' I quickly scribbled something on a scrap of paper and left it on the vanity table.

"_Feeling better Hao?" I looked up at my younger twin with a gaze full of hatred. I returned to losing my lunch in the church restroom. "I'll take that as a no…" _

_Yoh looked down at me in pity. I wanted to slap him, but I felt too sick to even move without throwing up. "Tell me, are you hung over, or is this just nerves?" My little brother gazed half worrying, half teasing._

_I got up and rinsed out my mouth. "Nerves. I didn't drink at all last night…unlike your stupid friends. I feel better now though…" Just as I had said this, another wave of nausea hit me._

"_So much for better…" Yoh looked away, a slightly paler color than usual. "Are you sure you're up to this? You're really…tense. It's not really like you Hao. I'd have thought that you'd be happy to finally be getting married."_

_My stomach heaved at his last word. "Hao?" Yoh rest a comforting hand on my shoulder._

"_I can't do it." I finally made up my mind._

"_WHAT!" My mirror image looked like he was about to have a heart attack._

"_You heard me. I can't marry her." I wiped off my mouth a second time and tried not to make eye contact with my younger sibling._

"_Hao? What are you talking about! You love her! How can you give her up so easily!" The look of utter terror on my cute twin's face was slightly amusing._

"_I just can't. Would it be really all that awful to stay engaged a few more months? Years even?" Yoh gaped at me like I was nuts._

"_Who are you and what have you done with my perverted bastard of a big brother! Hao, you've been married before right? And you've been with hundreds of girls over your first two lifetimes, so what's the problem!"_

"_She's not some other girl, Yoh…she's Ivy…She's so young, not even 17 yet. Sure I've been married before and there have been other women, but those were all arranged or were just for fun! The whole object of those was to have some fun, and extend the family tree. I can't think about it that way when Ivy's the one I'm talking about. It's not the same…" My eyes lost focus and seemed to wander into the far corners of my mind._

"_Are you saying that you can't…"_

"_Not with her. Sure I've pictured it at least a trillion times, but…it would be so awkward…I couldn't do anything to Ivy. I love her too much to risk hurting her. What if it doesn't work and we get divorced? I don't even want to imagine all the horrible things that can happen in a marriage! I don't know how you and Anna…never mind. She must be a completely different person though. I can't imagine having kids with Ivy…I mean, Ivy? PREGNANT? I just can't see it. I can't drag the both of us through this, so it's better not to marry her at all."_

"_Liar." Yoh easily called my bluff. "You want her so badly it scares you. Hao, nothing bad is going to happen. You're not going to get a divorce. Even if the marriage is a disaster, the both of you are too stubborn to give up on each other. Come on Aniki, Ivy is going to kill you if you back out on her now…She loves you…Hao?"_

"_What if I'm not enough for her? What if—"_

"_Oh GOD Hao, is _that _what this is about! I swear, I will hold a gun to your head and force you to walk down that isle!" The seriousness of Yoh's voice scared me. "Now, go to the dressing room and get ready. I'll be in, in a minute. I have to go talk to Anna, but don't worry; everything will work out in the end." I nodded and did as he said._

'_Maybe he's right…' My grip tightened on the doorknob. Chills shot up my spine. 'Or not…' I picked up a spare wedding program, wrote a brief apology, and stuck it to the door. Yoh would find it and give it to Ivy for me. I slipped out the back door with a heavy heart._

**Out in the hallway Yoh and Anna were talking about the difficulties so far with their siblings' wedding. "Well, Ivy fainted. She's fine now, but she's convinced that she can't marry him."**

"**Hao's the same way…well except that he didn't faint. He's busy being sick to his stomach." Yoh bounced his son up and down and glanced fondly at his wife.**

"**Even our wedding wasn't this much of a disaster." Anna gently smoothed Hana's dirty blonde locks. The baby giggled in delight at all the attention.**

**Yoh smiled up at Anna. "They're just nervous." He easily shrugged off the tense situation. "They love each other too much, and they're started to second-guess themselves. They'll be fine."**

**Anna could only smile and shake her head at her husband. "Can you watch Hana? I need to go take care of Ivy. They'll get married even if I have to walk down the isle behind her with a loaded 9 mm."**

"**That's what I told Hao…well, sort of." Yoh resituated his son on his hip and turned to the men's dressing room. "I hope Hao's feeling better by now…"**

**The husband and wife returned to their respective dressing rooms, but ran out and almost crashed into each other seconds later. "ANNA!" "YOH!"**

"**He/She's gone!" They chorused, holding up matching apology notes.**

**Anna looked positively infuriated. "Really, do they plan these things! I swear they do this to annoy me!"**

"**What do we do?" Yoh awaited Anna's instructions.**

"**You go round up some of your friends to find Hao. I'll go rally the girls together to drag Ivy back here." Yoh nodded and set off to find his friends and his brother.**

My heart was pounding in my ears, throbbing. I didn't want to leave him, but I was so scared. I looked back around the corner of the building to make sure no one would see me as I made a run for it. My breath was knocked out of me as I was thrust to the ground with a thud as someone nearly ran me over, tripping in the process. My whole body went stiff when I recognized who was lying on top of me.

_I snuck out the back way and started running, glancing over my shoulder, making sure I wasn't being followed. I didn't see the object in my path, so I was startled as I collided headfirst and was thrown to the ground. I hadn't seen Ivy standing there. _

_I landed in a compromising position on top of her with my hands touching some places that she normally would have killed me for. Our mouths were millimeters from touching. Our eyes locked. Her lips quivered as she mumbled my name. She looked so scared…I couldn't really tell _what_ she was afraid of, but her whispered utterance of 'Hao…' awoke something deep within me. I wanted her, more than I had ever wanted anything before. "Ivy…" I couldn't control the amount of lust leaking through in my voice. I knew I shouldn't have, but it didn't stop me from sliding my hand up her thigh._

_Ivy hadn't resisted up until then. She hadn't objected to our closeness at all, but when I tried to make a move on her… "Hao!"_

I pushed him off of me with all the force I could muster. I couldn't believe how close I had let him get. "Don't touch me like that, you pervert!" I shrieked, no longer scared, but reverting to my usual hardheaded, fiery self. I pouted, looking away from him. I didn't bother standing; he was still on the ground, and would probably sneak peeks up my dress if I did stand.

"I'm sorry." He too turned away from me, rising to a comfortable seated position instead of a pile on the pavement. "I didn't mean to…that is to say…I was just…" He stopped and started several more times, unsure of what to say. It struck me as odd; it was so uncommon for my fiancée to be so…genuinely nervous. "Ivy, please don't be mad; I can explain. I'm sorry."

Yet another shock from the older Asakura twin. 'What's he talking about? Why is _he_ apologizing? _I'm _the one who's leaving. Did Anna show him my note?' My train of thought froze between junctions as I felt Hao gently stroking my hair. It was a gesture full of longing. Longing for forgiveness and…something else I couldn't, or didn't want to place at the moment. He was still waiting for me to say something. In truth, I had absent-mindedly almost forgotten he was there.

The pouting look on my face dissolved as I looked into his eyes. "I'm…not mad… I'm just scared."

"Of what?" He lowered his voice, getting lost in our extended period of eye contact. I might have been just imagining it, but I think he was slowly inching closer to me the entire time. All of the sudden I found our lips melting together in a soft kiss. He tried to deepen it, but I, being in no mood, pulled away.

"How can you kiss me like that after the letter…?" I of course was talking about my letter to him, but he had not gotten it yet, so he assumed I was talking about his letter to me, which I hadn't gotten either. Needless to say, neither of us knew that the other had been having second thoughts about the marriage, so as the conversation played out, we both assumed it was our own, individual fault.

"Ivy…I'm so sorry…I didn't mean it like that…I…it's my fault."

I looked up at him in utter confusion. "Wait…I specifically said that it wasn't your fault."

My statement only seemed to confuse things more. Hao blinked twice, staring at me like I was crazy. "When did you say that?"

"In my letter to you, you idiot." I hit him playfully on the top of his head.

"_Your_ letter!"

"Yes! My letter telling you that I couldn't marry you!" I stopped abruptly at his puzzled expression. "You _did _get the letter…_didn't_ you?"

Hao slowly shook his head. "I guess you didn't get my letter either…"

I shook my head at an equally slow pace. "What exactly did this letter of yours say Hao?"

"Wait…why can't you marry me?" Hao completely ignored my question and kept asking ones of his own.

"I just can't!" I shouted hostilely. "Now what was your letter about!"

"I said I couldn't marry you either." He answered solemnly and rose to his feet, offering his hand to help me up. My fiancée led me over to a bench in the chapel garden and we sat down to talk.

I don't know why, but it hurt me when he said that he couldn't marry me. It shouldn't have mattered what he thought since I didn't want to marry him either, but something in me hurt when he said that. 'Am I having second thoughts about not marrying him?'

_I led her to a bench in the chapel garden and we sat down to try to talk things out. I was really regretting writing that letter. "Ivy, I'm really sorry to put you through all of this, but I've changed my mind again. I _do_ want to marry you."_

_She cocked her head to the side as sat considering me for a moment before opening her mouth. "What made you change your mind?"_

_I wrapped my arm around her waist and pulled her closer. "Seeing you in that dress."_

_Of course I was teasing—well at least, sort of teasing—but, Ivy must have taken me seriously because she pulled forcibly away from me and whipped her hand across my face in a smart smack. "You bastard! Is that all you want me for! To sleep with! You said you were in love with me!" The sixteen-year-old looked about ready to tear my insides out._

"_Ivy, relax! I was just joking!" I hastily backed away from the demoness, scared for my life._

_She didn't reply. I had a bad feeling that she was giving me the silent treatment. Ivy had completely turned her back to me, not allowing me to see her face. My tone softened and I tried to put a hand on her shoulder. "Ivy…" She pulled away, not letting me touch her. "Ivy, please…I didn't mean it." She absolutely refused to respond. "Damn it Ivy, why do you have to be so difficult!" I couldn't help but raise my voice at her. She did this all the time just to annoy me, and it worked every single time._

_It was only then that her sobs became audible. My temper died instantly and a tremendous guilt replaced it. I got up and kneeled in front of her. She didn't bother trying to hide her tears from me. Her beautiful dark eyes were turning a faint red color, and her cheeks were already tearstained. "I'm not being difficult!" She snapped back through tears._

"_Oh Ivy, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean—"_

"—_Oh, _DIDN'T _you!" I knew then that I had unleashed Hell's wrath upon myself._

_I gripped her hands loosely, but held them like a lifeline. "Ivy, please?" Begging was the only thing I could think of that might save my life. I hadn't seen Ivy this mad before._

"_Oh just leave me alone!" She stood and started to walk off, ripping her hands away from mine._

"_Wait! Hold on!" I quickly got to my feet to follow after her. "I love you…"_

_She halted mid-step with her back to me. "I love you too." I thought that maybe she had reconsidered the marriage; I was filled with a renewed sense of hope. Unfortunately she kept talking. "But why do you want to marry me? Is it just so that you can finally sleep with me? Is that what all this is about?"_

"_That's not it at all. You mean more to me than that…" I tried to talk my way out of it. I really did want more from her than that. Actually I was still pretty scared to take that much from her. "Ivy, please don't go…I really am being sincere."_

"_Why did you ask me to marry you in the first place Hao?" Ivy retook her seat on the bench and waited for my reply._

"_I..." I sat next to her and our eyes locked. "God you're beautiful." I couldn't help but kiss her passionately._

_She broke away from me yet again. "Use your words to tell me you love me, not your body."_

"_Am I suddenly not allowed to kiss you?" I responded in a semi-hostile manner._

"_Just answer the question! Why did you propose in the first place!" Ivy was obviously fed up, and I wasn't making it any easier._

_I looked her in the eye and spoke from my heart, "I don't know."_

"_What!" I was going to get slapped again or worse if I didn't say something quickly._

"_I mean that I don't know how to say it." I made a hasty save. "I can't express with words why I want to marry you. Is it a crime to be so in love with someone that you want to keep them for yourself? I don't want any other man to be able to get his hands on you." Her faint smile was encouragement for me to keep going. "I can't describe how I feel about you…I can't put into words how happy I am just being able to wake up with you in my arms every morning…. I want you to be happy Ivy, so if I can't make you happy, I want you to be with someone who can." It was an old trick, and I had used it several times before. If you pretended to give them up so that they could be happy, they would instantly melt into you._

"_Really? You'd let me be with someone else if they'd make me happier?" Ivy looked me over, seriously considering my offer. "That's so sweet of you Hao! You know I have had my eye on Lyserg for awhile…"_

_My eyes widened and the side of my mouth twitched. "Please tell me that you're not serious."_

I smiled broadly and laughed at his reaction. "You are soooo gullible!"

A look of immense relief overtook Hao's face, but it was soon replaced by annoyance. "Come here you!" He grabbed me around the waist and trapped me underneath him, lying me down on the bench.

"Hao!" I screeched, not liking the position we were in.

"Ivy…" He forced his mouth upon mine and I couldn't do anything about it; soon the kiss had gotten way out of control.

"I thought I'd find you here." A disdainful, yet feminine voice interrupted our make out session. I blushed heavily as Hao pulled away, smiling brightly at my sister.

"Hello Anna." My fiancée greeted, still on top of me.

My twin glowered spitefully. "Hello Hao. I see you've changed your mind about the marriage yet again?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact I did." Hao got up and helped me to my feet.

"So it was just nerves." Yoh appeared behind Anna with baby Hana bouncing up and down in his arms.

Hao nodded at his little brother. "If she'll have me, I'd marry Ivy in a second." He turned expectantly at me.

A small congregation of people had been following close behind Anna and Yoh, and they arrived in time to stare at me, waiting for my answer.

"Ivy?" Anna coaxed.

"I…" I didn't trust my voice to convey my feelings. Every single eye in the place was on me, and even though Hao had changed his mind and wanted to marry me, I still felt the same; I couldn't marry him. Yes, I loved him, but I couldn't bring myself to go through with marriage. I was too afraid. "…can't." I looked away from him in shame.

A small gasp escaped from the crowd. A shadow of a smile appeared on Hao's lips. He gestured for the crowd to leave us, and only Yoh and Anna stayed behind to watch from a distance at the edge of the garden.

"Is there a reason why you don't want to marry me?" Hao whispered seductively in my ear, encircling me in his embrace from behind.

I closed my eyes and let myself be comforted by his warmth. It was January first, and the wind blew cold through the trees. "It's not that I _don't _ want to…it's that I'm _afraid_ to." Snow lightly began to fall.

"Are you crying Ivy?" He mumbled, lightly playing with strands of my hair. "It can't rain since it's well below 32 degrees Fahrenheit, but it can snow…"

"I'm not…crying." I choked back my tears.

"What are you afraid of?" His calm, sultry voice lulled me into a sense of security.

"I don't know." I lied.

I could hear the smirk in his voice as he teased, "I could just read your mind…"

"Please don't!" I begged, yearning for some shred of privacy.

"Then tell me." He was manipulating me again.

I hesitated only for a moment before I gave in to his request. "Fine, bully. I don't want things to change between us once we're married…I love you, and I don't want to lose you. Married seems so different from being engaged…I don't want our relationship to be different."

_I held her tighter and bits and pieces of her thoughts slipped into my mind unintentionally. She was afraid that she would be a disappointment, that I would easily tire of her, that I might become over run with my Shaman King powers and attempt to destroy the world. She was scared that I might become a sex-driven maniac and might start cheating on her. She was afraid that she might get pregnant. She was afraid of being a mother. She was afraid of being a wife. All sorts of silly fears were flowing through her brain._

"_Ivy, you can't be afraid forever." I turned her to face me. Her trembling, dark eyes widened in awe, or maybe it was fear, of me. "I was afraid of the same things when I wrote that apology note to you telling you that I couldn't marry you, but now I'm not scared anymore. Ivy, once I saw you today, something inside of me told me that everything would be all right. Nothing bad can happen because we both love each other. You don't have to be scared anymore. I'll take care of you." I kissed her lightly on the forehead and walked away._

I called after him, dazed from either his speech or the kiss. "Where are you going!"

He replied over his shoulder, not exactly looking at me. "Inside where it's warm. If you hadn't noticed, it's freezing out here. If you want, you can follow me and we can get married; if not, you could always stay out here. Either way I'll be waiting at the alter for you. Whether or not you stand me up is up to you."

Hao, Yoh, and Anna disappeared into the Church, leaving me standing out in the snow.

**A young man in a black tuxedo stood before the alter of a Shaman Church. He fidgeted some, occasionally looking down at his watch. He played absent-mindedly with a lock of his long crimson-brown hair. He had been waiting for well over two hours, but it looked as if his patience had been in vain.**

**The church candles had been burning the whole time, and had been reduced to inches of melted wax and short wicks. The sun had sunk beneath the horizon, and it was getting cold inside the stone Church building. Surprisingly, none of the wedding guests had left yet even after hours of unproductive waiting. The groom refused to give up hope that his bride would show.**

"**Hao?" The groom's twin hesitantly place a hand on his brother's shoulder.**

**The older Asakura twin looked up, his eyes full of weariness. "Just a little longer Yoh. Please?"**

**The Best Man looked with pity on his elder brother. "All right. We can wait another fifteen minutes."**

"**Thank you." Hao smiled, exhausted, but keeping up a good mask.**

**Anna looked spitefully up at a nearby clock. Her husband sat down next to her in the pew and picked up their son. "He's still convinced that she's coming isn't he?"**

**Yoh nodded as he cuddled Hana. "Yeah, I have a feeling that he won't move until she shows up, even if he has to wait a couple more years." Baby Hana cooed inquisitively at his father's depressed tone.**

"**Yes, Hao's really stubborn like that isn't he?" A blue-haired, Ainu woman with a baby sat down on the other side of Yoh.**

"**Hello Pilika." Anna greeted.**

"**Hello." The girl smiled cheerfully among the gloom of the Church. "I hope you don't mind if baby Akira and I sit here. Akira and Hana always get along so well when they have their play dates."**

"**We don't mind at all." Yoh smiled kindly at his friend, Ren's, wife. Hana threw a pacifier at Akira and laughed exuberantly. The Tao baby seemed to glare back at his friend.**

**Elsewhere in the Church, a gang of gothic chicks was talking to the groom-to-be. The peppy red-haired one bounced up and down gleefully. In truth, she was very happy that Hao didn't seem to be getting married any time soon. "Cheer up Hao-sama! If Ivy doesn't show up, you could always marry me instead. I'll be a good wife! Plus, you wouldn't want to waste the Church booking and the decorations, and since all these people are already here…"**

"**Mari thinks that Macchi should shut up." The blonde carrying a demented doll spoke up. "Master Hao should marry Mari instead. Mari will be an obedient wife. She will be soooo much better than either Macchi or Ivy could."**

"**I think you're both being idiots." A puff of cigarette smoke wafted in from behind them. "Can't you see that Hao has no intension of marrying unless Ivy gets her butt in here today!" Kanna carefully balanced her newborn baby daughter on her hip with one hand and smoked heavily, holding a cigarette in the other hand. "God it's been a terrible nine months without a smoke."**

"**Thanks Kanna." The depressed fire-wielder faked a smile in the blue-haired smoker's direction.**

"**Poor Hao." A little Jack Russell Terrier ran around at Hao's feet, clearly getting restless from hours of nothing but sitting still. "Maybe we should all go home and get some hot coco? Or maybe if we went for a run in the park to get rid of some of the tension in this room?"**

"**Silly dog knows nothing of what is good for Master Hao." A small African child glared at the puppy. "Is master okay?"**

"**Yes, I'm fine Opacho; thank you." Hao sent a genuine smile towards his youngest follower.**

"**No you're not." The gruff voice of Luca thundered from behind. "I knew you shouldn't have fallen for this girl. She's breaking your heart again!"**

"**Don't say that Luca." Hao firmly reprimanded his father figure. "I have a feeling that she'll show up."**

**Luca rolled his eyes and grimaced at Hao's optimistic attitude. "Yes Hao, it's called 'false hope'."**

**Any further conversing was brought to a halt as the wedding march struck up, and a young woman in a powdery white gown entered, escorted by her elder brother, Tao Ren.**

**Everyone gaped in surprise as the snowy angel walked down the isle. The wedding party took their places with looks of suspenseful excitement on their faces. Ren led Ivy up to the alter, and Luca looked completely perplexed. Hao looked expectantly at his eldest follower.**

**Luca blinked twice before uncertainly beginning the wedding. "Um…W-who gives this woman in holy matrimony?"**

"**I do." Ren presented Ivy, handing her off gently to Hao. Under his breath, the Tao whispered "You better take care of my baby sister bastard or I'll hunt you down and castrate you."**

**Hao ignored Ren's comment as he whispered to Ivy. "I'm glad you came. I knew you would."**

**The veiled beauty, her face already red from the cold outdoors, flushed even more. "I'm sorry that I'm so late. I should have—"**

"—**It's okay…Better late than never." He winked seductively and she reddened.**

**It was a lovely wedding, really. Nothing else went wrong after the bride and groom had gotten over their cold feet. Soon the evening's fiasco was over and the reception went well. The newlyweds retired to their hotel room.**

It was late at night when the reception finally ended and we got checked into the hotel room. I collapsed on the bed without bothering to take a look around. "I'm exhausted…"

"You look beautiful." My new husband lay down beside me, removing his shirt and jacket.

"Thanks, but I don't believe you." I yawned closing my eyes.

"You always look beautiful." My eyes snapped open as he got on top of me, straddling my hips.

I could hardly breath as memories of the times he had tried to rape me came flooding back. "H-hao…"

"Yes?" He nipped lightly at the base of my neck. "Is there a problem?"

"Y-yes." I looked sideways away from him.

He let out a frustrated breath and got off of me, sitting beside me on the bed. "Ivy…we're married."

"I know." I too sat up, but I turned my back to him.

"You're still scared…" He pulled me up against him and ruffled my hair.

"I'm sorry…" I mumbled into his neck, resting my head on his shoulder.

"You don't have to be. Don't feel obliged to sleep with me just because you're my wife." He said it so softly that I couldn't tell if it was irony or sarcasm in his voice.

"I'm sorry…I shouldn't be so…but I really am sorry Hao."

"It really is nothing to be scared of…It's like…chess." He stumbled over his words to find a suitable analogy.

"Chess?" I echoed.

"Yes. Chess. If I move here…" He placed his hand on the back of my dress, gently tugging on the zipper.

"Then I move…here?" I slowly moved my hand to touch his pants zipper.

"Exactly." He kissed me full on the lips. "Love you."

"Love you too." I pushed him down on the bed and got on top of him. "Pinned ya!" I winked slyly.

He rolled me over so I was the one on bottom. "Oh really?"

"Fine. You win. Maybe it won't be so bad after all." I pulled him down for another kiss as he unzipped my dress.


	26. Plotting and Scheming

Mikau: Hello everyone! I missed you all soooooooo much! I meant to get this up sooner, but then I got pneumonia and had to do a research report and a science fair project. The musical was magnificent! I got so many pictures backstage, and I miss everyone from the musical soooooo much! -Cries- There's another musical coming up called "Into the Woods" if you've heard of it. Also there's a play at the same time, and I can't decide which I want to be in. You can only be in one, and I'm having major dilemmas. Try outs for the play are on the 30th, and try outs for "Into the Woods" are on the 12th of December. I'll have to figure something out…but if I don't make "Into the Woods", I'll probably try out for the play or musical of one of the local boys' schools. Okay, enough about me. This chapter is pretty depressing and incestful. Yeah…that's about all I have to say about that subject.

**_Disclaimer:_** I don't own Shaman King, or the song "Annie Waits" by Ben Folds.

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Plotting and Scheming

"Hana?...Hello? Earth to Hana? Do you think he's okay? He hasn't moved since she left…" Ivory got up from the booth and tapped me on the shoulder.

I jumped at least ten feet, then whirled around to see the Ainu girl looking wide-eyed at me. "Hana, are you feeling all right? You seem really jumpy…and depressed. Both things, very unlike the Hana I've grown to love."

I flashed her a bright smile, trying to mask my true feelings. "Don't be ridiculous. I'm fine. I don't know, but this rain does stuff to me and I just kind of start spacing out. Really I'm perfect, just perfect." Everyone was easily fooled by my ploy, and a sense of ease fell over the group.

"Good. Then you won't mind if I borrow your car?—No?—Great." Ivory reached into my pocket, pulled out my car keys, and headed out the door with Akira and Makoto close behind her. I didn't even bother protesting. Ivory had 'borrowed' my car so many times before even though she only had her learner's permit. She hadn't totaled the vehicle yet, so I didn't have a problem with it. Besides I had much more pressing matters on my hands at the moment. 'She didn't even take an umbrella…'

"We need to talk." Hoshi threw my jacket into my face. I blinked several times before following her blindly out into the rain. She walked at a fast gait; I had to jog to keep up with her. Within minutes we had arrived at Moon and Stars Café and Bakery. Hoshi dragged me by my arm and whirled me around, shoving me into a window booth.

"What exactly did you want to talk about Hoshi?" I gulped. I could tell by the serious tone in her voice that she meant business.

My cousin seated herself on the seat opposite me, folded her hands, and looked me right in the eye. "Look Hana, you love her, right?"

"I…uh…what brought this up Hosh?" I tried to get out of talking about my incestful situation.

"Answer the question." She could be even scarier than her father if she wanted to be.

"I love her. So? I don't see why it matters."

Hoshi raised an eyebrow at me. "Don't you?" The green-haired waiter came over, interrupting Hoshi's train of thought. My cousin re-adopted her stupid accent.

"What can I get for you two this evening?"

"Um, I'll, like, have the number two special." Hoshi played with one of her bangs absent-mindedly.

I quickly scanned the menu, but I wasn't hungry. "Just an orange smoothie for me."

"Right." The green-eyed man nodded as he jotted down the order. Something seemed to catch his eye, and he stared at the faded scar on the side of Hoshi's face.

She cocked her head to the side and glared at him. "Can I help you?"

"I knew it! You _are_ Ivy and Hao's daughter, aren't you! My name is Lyserg. I knew your parents." The green man replied in a sort of begrudging way that suggested that he wasn't extremely fond of her parents.

"Yes, I'm Hoshi, their eldest daughter." My cousin replied in a similar tone of voice to Lyserg.

"May I inquire as to where you got that 3-like scar on your face?" The detective ventured gingerly forward with the conversation.

"NO, YOU MAY NOT!" a fiery passion burned in the woman's eyes.

"Very well. I will return with your order in a few minutes." He hastily hurried to the kitchen to escape from the enraged Asakura woman.

"Nosey detectives…" Hoshi rolled her eyes and got back to the matters at hand. "Anyway, Hana, if you love her, tell her. I refuse to go any further with our little plot unless I'm sure that you're not suffering through this. You want her, but you're helping some other guy have her; that's bound to end up hurting you somewhere along the way. What do you say?"

My gaze strayed out the window, and my eyes hazed over as I focused on a raindrop flowing down the pane. "What would you have me do, Hoshi? It's incest no matter what way you look at it, regardless if I love her. There's nothing I can do."

"I'm not going through with this then." She replied automatically, forcing my hand. "You're only hurting yourself. Who cares about incest? I'm talking about love. You love Thorn, and you're going to give her up just because society says that you two shouldn't be together." My cousin took my face in her hands and forced me to look at her. "Hana, here's what I want you to do: go home and tell Thorn how you feel. Do whatever else you want with her; I don't care, just do it today. Tomorrow I'm going to submit Thorn and Akira's audition forms for the school musical. Tomorrow we put our plan into action, and Thorn is officially Akira's property. You have the rest of today and tonight to do as you wish with Thorn…." Hoshi ended with a lilt to her voice, and a smirk on her face.

I searched her appearance for any trace sign of lying. I couldn't find any. "You're serious."

"Mhm." She nodded, her smile widening.

I couldn't help but return the gesture. "Thank you…"

"Oh, stop it. Just go." She flipped a long lock of hair out of her face and smiled again, clearly pleased with her matchmaking.

"But the food—"

"I'll take care of it." Hoshi pushed.

"Leave a good tip." I hustled to put on my jacket.

"I will; now get out of here!" I quickly fled the scene, racing off toward Funbari Onsen. Hoshi left only moments after I did, leaving no money for the food, but instead a small slip of paper reading _"Here's your tip, Mr. Detective: _Diablo._"_

I raced out into the rain after my cousin, determined to catch up and confess everything to her before my time was up, and it was time to set her up with my best friend. When I reached the Onsen, I saw Thorn, but it looked like she was with someone. I called out to her, and when she turned toward me, I saw that she was by herself.

"Hey Hana…" Thorn looked around as if searching for something, but as far as I could see, there was nothing but thin air to be found. She picked up a small bouquet of red roses off the ground and looked sadly at them, holding them to her chest.

"I'm sorry, did I interrupt something?" I stepped back, all of the sudden feeling nervous.

My apology seemed to wake her from her thoughts and she started stuttering, trying to piece together a suitable sentence from her broken thoughts. "No! No, you didn't…I was just…I don't know. I wasn't doing anything. I—"

"—I think you should go inside and get warmed up. You're soaked, and I think that that's effecting your speaking skills."

I smiled warmly when she giggled and blushed. "Yes, I think you're right. I don't seem to be thinking or speaking clearly."

"You go upstairs and change into some warm clothing; I'll bring some hot chocolate to your room for you." I offered in a gentlemanly manner.

"Thanks. I could use it." She whispered a soft, yet grateful, thank you and scurried inside to change.

I went to the kitchen where I found Hao sitting by himself, drinking a cold cup of coffee. "Hey uncle Hao."

"Hey Hana." He eyed me suspiciously. "You're dripping wet."

I looked myself over and affirmed his observations. "I walked home in the rain."

My uncle gave an uninterested nod and took a sip of his cold drink.

"Hao, what do you think of incest?"

He choked, coughing and sputtering, looking at me like I was crazy. "Where did that come from!"

"Nowhere. I was just curious." I covered defensively.

"It depends." He eyed me carefully, checking my face for any hint to what was going on inside my head.

"On what?" I tried not to sound too interested.

"On who is involved." Hao dumped out the rest of his coffee in the sink and sat down with me at the kitchen table. "So?"

"Well…" It was too late to go and take it back now. I had introduced the topic into the conversation, and now Hao was suspicious of why I had even been thinking about the subject. "Say that I had a twin brother or something and we were separated at birth. Say that Hoshi had ended up sleeping with him on one of her jobs without knowing that he was her cousin. Is it wrong if they fall in love and get married and stuff?"

My uncle looked at me indifferently, seriously considering what I had said. "I'd rather you not, but if you're in love Hana, I can't stop you. You're responsible for your own actions, but as the girl's father, if you hurt her, I will have to kill you, regardless that you're my otouto's only child." He left me sitting wide-eyed at how easily he had completely figured me out.

I didn't see the worried look on his face as he left. "Uh…thanks." I shook his unprotective behavior off and set to making the hot chocolate for my cousin. I made two mugs full and ascended the stairs to Thorn's room.

On the way I passed through the living room, ignoring my mother who was sitting at the windowsill arguing with Lucifer, who stood beside her like a servant awaiting orders. I only caught parts of their discussion.

My mother was saying something like: "And you're sure that _he_ won't interfere?"

Lucifer nodded, responding: "He doesn't know anything about what I'm doing, so how could he? I had nothing to do with what happened to those girls if that's what you're thinking…"

I didn't meddle in their business. They had been meeting every once in awhile for a month now, and I had learned long ago not to question my mother's motives. She had good reason to speak with the devil, and I didn't need to know why. I probably didn't even want to know.

I made my way up the stairs, bumping into a teary-eyed Ivy on the way up. She looked different…not at all like the Valerie woman she had been since Hao had come back into her life. The glow in her eyes was an Ivy-ish one. Yet somehow, she looked ill.

"Are you okay Auntie?" I cast an anxiety-filled look her way.

"Uh? Oh! Yeah…Fine—I'm fine." Ivy wiped the tears from her eyes and continued down the steps. She was acting odd. Everyone was. I shrugged it off and continued on my quest to Thorn's room.

Everyone was acting funny that day, and somehow I could feel some sort of plot building in the household. I had long ago resigned myself to being a pawn in their chess matches, but too many people seemed to be playing. Hoshi was moving pieces around, but so was Anna. Lucifer and Ivy were both playing too, and even Hao seemed to be switching pieces' positions when no one else was watching. Everyone had ulterior motives—even me! I was in love with Thorn, yet I was setting her up with my buddy, Akira. It's a wonder that I grew up relatively normal even by Shaman standards, what with all the plotting and scheming going on around me.

I rapped lightly on my cousin's bedroom door and held my breath as I waited for her to answer. "Who is it?"

"Hana wa desu."

"Come in."

I opened the door just as she pulled her tank top over her head. I saw a little of her bra and nearly fainted. She had such a potency to her; she was hard to resist. Suddenly the reason for my being in her room came back to me, and I starting racking my brains to find a way to tell her how I really felt without startling or scaring her. I handed her the hot chocolate mug without saying a word.

She smiled and took the cup. "Thank you Hana-kun." Her milky grin made me weak in the knees. I set my glass down on her bedside table.

"It was nothing." I couldn't think of anything to say, so I just stood there.

Slipping off her wet shoes, she sat down on the bed, oblivious to my obvious awkwardness. She patted the spot next to her on the bed, motioning for me to sit down.

I nodded, doing as she wished; all the while thinking, 'I'm on her bed. OH. MY. GOD.'

"Hana? Are you feeling okay? You're so quiet…" All of the sudden she was sitting right in front of me, practically on my lap, feeling of my face for fever. 'When did she get so close?' "Hana? Your face is flushing, and you're so hot." My heart skipped a beat…or four…I knew that she hadn't meant "hot" in the sense that I had heard it, but I couldn't help but think that way. My hormones were taking over. I could see down her shirt, her hands were on my face, and our noses were scant inches away from each other.

"I love you."

I had said it. It just slipped out. I hadn't meant to just straight out tell her, but none-the-less, there it was. I had just come out and said the three words that could kill or make a relationship.

"W…Wh-wh…what?" She didn't move away like I thought she might. Thorn looked at me in stunned silence, her dark eyes searching mine for truth.

Before either of us could say anything more, I cupped the back of her head and pulled her toward me, clamping my lips over hers, taking possession of her mouth in one fluid motion. She struggled at first, but I sedated her easily with my tongue.

Only when I made a move to take off her shirt did she pull away. "Hana, we're cousins."

"I won't tell if you don't." My hands skillfully worked their way around her chest as my mouth nibbled at the base of her neck. She let me take off her shirt and unhook her bra.

"But—" I silenced her protesting lips with a heated kiss.

"Hana…Stop…It…" She sighed whenever I pulled away, allowing her a breath. Her words were disapproving, but her tone was longing. By the time she had gotten to 'it', I already had her lying down on the bed, and was straddling her. Thorn was too far under my spell to turn back.

She didn't resist anymore; quite the opposite, actually. She striped me of my shirt and pants, leaving only my boxers. I had gone farther with other girls before, but now I was feeling nervous. She _was _my cousin after all…

"How long?" Thorn's husky whisper interrupted my second thoughts.

"Hm?"

"How long have you been in love with me? When did you know?" She nibbled on my neck, leaving my lips alone so that I could speak.

I saw no harm in answering her questions; after all, it gave me more time until we actually… "Since I met you. I've been in love with you all this time, but it's just recently that I realized that I loved you."

She kissed me again as I removed her pants. I ran my fingers through her still damp hair. "What made you realize that you were in love?"

She wasn't going to like the answer. "I don't know."

"You have to know." She pressed, playing with a few longer strands of my own blonde locks.

"Your sister." I kissed her again before she could say anything.

Thorn broke away from me and held the blankets to cover her bear chest. "Hoshi! What does my sister have to do with this? Surely she wouldn't want us to… I don't understand."

"You don't have to understand." I coaxed, pulling the covers away. "I love you; I knew all along, but your sister helped me to finally admit to it. Besides, why should we care what Hoshi thinks?"

"I love you too." She pulled me into another kiss, removing the last articles of our clothing.

Out of the corner of my eye I swear I saw Ivy close the bedroom door that I had left partway open. She hadn't been there the whole time, but had probably just saw us as she was walking past. I did leave the door pretty much open… She was probably debating whether or not to stop us. Whether to be a good aunt and let me have her, a good mother and stop me, or a romantic and let us have our forbidden love. Suddenly I found myself thinking about what my own mother would think. 'Would Anna even care? She'd probably hit me or something…'

I melted at Thorn's touch; my body was on fire, but somewhere in the back of my mind I heard voices. _"If you hurt her, I'll have to kill you regardless of the fact that you're my otouto's only child." "Who cares about incest? I'm talking about love. You love Thorn, and you're going to give her up just because society says that you two shouldn't be together." "But we're cousins!"_

Something within me clicked. I pulled back and looked down at the woman beneath me. Thorn was breathing heavily and gazing up at me with innocent eyes. Waiting. Just waiting. "Hana? Is something wrong?" Her fingers nimbly traced the inside of my thigh.

I fought back the hormones and told her what neither of us wanted to hear. "We're cousins. Your first time can't be with your cousin, Thorn." I had made up my mind to not do anything to her.

"What? Why not? I thought that you…" Her innocent dark eyes bore into me like wooden stakes through vampires' hearts.

"Like I said before—we're cousins. It's incest Thorn." I got off of her and started pulling back on my clothes.

"I thought that you didn't care… I thought you said that you loved me…" The hurt look on her face was killing me.

I looked lovingly back at her. I let my eyes wander her uncovered flesh. I had been trying not to look at her the entire time, so as not to tempt myself to go through with my original plans, but I stole a glance at her anyway, reasoning that this would be the last time that I ever saw her like that, so what harm would another look do? "It's because I love you that I'm not going through with this. You may not understand now, but one day you will, and you'll be glad that nothing happened between us today. I do love you."

"I love y—"

"—No!" I covered her mouth before she could say 'you too'. If she completed the sentence, I might be tempted to kiss her again, and one thing might lead to the next, and all of the sudden I might end up sleeping with her. "Don't say it. Try and love someone else. I'm not the one for you."

She nodded that she understood, but Thorn was reluctant. "But I want you to be."

"Sometimes…It's better if we don't get what we want." I pulled on my shirt and left her in tears.

"I understand that you're doing it for me, but I wish you wouldn't." Her small, salty waterfalls didn't affect me; at least, that's what I pretended. She was slowly breaking down my resistance. "I know you're doing what you think is best, but in all honesty, is this really fair to me? I've been fighting my feelings for you for a little over a month, and now, suddenly when you decide that you want to make love to me, you leave the job only halfway done! I have absolutely no experience in love, so I had no idea how to deal with my feelings before. I didn't know what it meant to be in love. I didn't know that I was in love with you until only a short while ago, but now that you've confessed your feelings to me, I realize that I'm in love too, and I have just as much say as you in what goes on between us!" She seized me by the belt loop and pulled me back on top of her, kissing me fiercely.

I let her lips linger on mine a few seconds, but soon I regained self-control, and I broke the kiss. "Listen to me Thorn, I know it seems like I'm being unfair, but I really am doing this for you. Promise me that you'll wait 'til you're at least twenty, and then get married to the man of your dreams. Wait until then to do anything like this with a boy. Boys are horrible jerks who will use you and lose you. If you wait until you're old enough to be married, then you're safe from the creeps who would treat you poorly. I want to protect you; just ask your sister about what guys are really like. She could tell you. I love you, so I want you to be happy. You'll find a great guy, I'm sure, one day. Who knows, maybe you already found him, but you just don't realize it yet. Promise me."

"I…You really are just looking out for me… But what about _your_ feelings for me? And mine for you!"

"Puppy love. It's just a crush. Now, promise?"

"P-Promise." She didn't even bother struggling. I can only hope that I convinced her that what I was doing to her was for the best.

"You'll find a new Prince Charming, don't worry. I love you." I kissed her a final time before leaving her room. I didn't look back; I needed to go sit in the courtyard and sulk over lost love.

"You let her go." Hoshi sat in the branches of the Sakura tree as I sat at the base of it, looking up. She held an umbrella to shelter herself from the icy raindrops that showed no sign of abating, but I didn't bother to cover myself. I was too depressed; the cold sharp needles raining down on me, piercing my unprotected skin felt good. It distracted me from the inner pain of my bleeding heart.

"You let her go." My younger cousin repeated, emphasizing her unasked question.

I didn't answer her. If she wanted information, she was going to have to ask specifically for it. I was in no mood to play her games.

"Be that way Hana." Hoshi glared as I didn't cooperate. I could tell she was mad because I wasn't volunteering any information, but I truthfully couldn't care less. She was too used to people offering information to her voluntarily without noticing what all she had tricked them into saying. If she wanted to know, then she could ask like normal people.

"God, must I stoop so low as to have to ask actual questions? You know normally all I'd have to say is 'You let her go.' and then you would comment upon why. What is up with you today Hana? You're so moody." The Asakura girl tossed a stray bang over her shoulder and pouted at my being difficult.

I ignored her.

My cousin could see that this was getting her nowhere. Her face showed minimal signs of defeat, but she finally asked the question. "Why did you let her go?"

"Because I love her." I mumbled just loud enough for her ears to hear. I looked down at my feet. I really wasn't in the mood to get the third degree from my younger cousin, but it looked like there was nothing I could do but sit and listen as she gave me an earful.

"Really." Not a question, not even an unasked question. She was just making noise for the heck of it. Her 'really' could have been replaced by 'oh', and it would have carried the same meaning. It looked as if maybe I wouldn't get a lecture from her after all.

I was grateful, so I offered her the information she wanted. "It would be a one night stand anyway if I had gone any further. As of tomorrow, we're setting her up with Akira. She's not mine to take, and I'd rather save her for my friend is all. She'd be happier that way. If I had taken her then…she would have had more of an attachment to me, and since she rightfully is Akira's…then she doesn't need that emotional baggage. All I'm saying is…she's not mine, and she never will be, so why hurt the both of us just so that we can have fifteen minutes worth of fun. It can't possibly be worth it...ne?" I looked up (literally) to my younger cousin for advice. I wasn't sure if I had made the right decision, and I was subtly waiting for her to say that I should have stayed and finished the job.

Hoshi looked down from her lofty perch and smiled. It was a real smile. Somehow, I had a feeling that she didn't really smile often, and that I was being graced with a miracle. I racked my brains for a memory of her smiling, but couldn't find any. She had never _really_ smiled at me before. True she smirked, and she did the occasional ironic smile, and there was her sad smile, and her angry smile, but nowhere in my mind had I any remembrance of a truly happy Hoshi smile.

"It's for the best Hana-kun." She jumped down out of the tree and walked away from me. I watched her walk away, not bothering to get up. When she noticed I wasn't following her, she glanced over her shoulder and winked. "You know, there are other girls in the world… Like me." My flirtatious cousin burst into giggles as I sneered at her.

"Don't be a tease Hoshi." I glared back at her, refusing to move from my spot beneath the tree.

"Who's teasing? I'm completely serious!" Her smile was more than enough to clue me in that she was lying. Still I got up and walked over to her.

"Serious, ne? I severely doubt it." I took her umbrella and held it over the both of us. The rain battered ruthlessly at the deflective device.

She stole the umbrella back, but still held it over both our heads. "You're right. I'm sorry for teasing you like that, but… I wonder…" She looked gaugingly at me.

It was a serious, glassy-eyed look that made me rather uneasy. She dropped the umbrella, stood on tiptoe, and pulled me into a kiss. My arms automatically wrapped around her waist as hers circled my neck. It was an all too automatic motion. Both of us had too much experience in the field of kissing, so it no longer meant what it once had back when we had had our first kiss.

Hoshi pulled back and looked at me with her scrutinizing gaze. "You're a really good kisser."

"You too." I returned her compliment.

"_Too_ good."

I nodded in agreement to her statement.

"We both need to find one person and tie ourselves down before we develop an immunity to love. You're not as far gone as I am, but it won't be long…Find a girl, fall in love, and marry her." Hoshi's sadistic advice that day would be some of the most helpful I would ever get my whole life.

"Thank you." I mumbled as she walked toward the front gate of the yard. "Where are you going?"

"Graveyard. I need to talk to someone. _Annie says 'You see this is why I'd rather be alone.'_" She walked off singing softly to some song by Ben Folds. I didn't remember the name of it, but I knew I had heard it before.

I reluctantly went inside, dripping wet. 'Maybe it's better this way… She never was mine to lose anyway. Maybe I'm better off alone…'

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Mikau: Wow…depressing. -Blinks- Anyway, yeah that song was "Annie Waits" by Ben Folds. It has an amazing piano part that I wish you guys could hear. This guy, John, he played Lumiere in Beauty and the Beast, he was playing the piano part one day before a show, and it is completely stuck in my head. Thank you all to my wonderful reviewers, I'll answer reviews next time. Sorry to keep you all waiting so long…

PLEASE REVIEW!


	27. Heartbreak

Mikau: Well, this chapter didn't take long to do. I'm sick with strep throat, and am home sick. I really enjoyed writing this one. Maybe because it's got a lot of Lucifer in it. For those who can't tell, Lucifer is my favorite OC. -hugs Lucifer- Yep, he's my baby. Um, a little while ago someone asked to use him in a fic. I lost the email I got about it, and I can't remember who asked. I remember I said yes, but who was it who wanted to use him please? I'd like to read the fic, but I can't remember whose fic it was. Sorry that I'm so forgetful.

**_Disclaimer:_** I don't own Shaman King.

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Heartbreak

It was a perfectly dreadful day at the Onsen. It was raining—Again. 'I have to have a talk to Ivy about that…she's hurting my business with her stupid depression.' People don't like to travel in the rain, so my Inn's business was suffering. My sister was in a full-blown depression despite my efforts to cheer her. Well _minimal_ efforts. I hadn't been trying very hard to make her happy….

It was a dreadful, dreary day at Funbari Onsen. My husband was off in England settling some matter of terrorist activity or some such thing. I hadn't paid much attention when he was telling me about it, so I couldn't recall the exact facts. He had left several days before hand and wasn't due back until later that night. Yoh hadn't seemed too worried about the trip so neither was I. My son, Hana, had gone off with his little group of friends, and had yet to return. Hoshi, the older of my nieces had left a little while ago in her flashy new car to meet up with the others. Thorn, the younger of the twins, had gone with Hana, and she wasn't back at the Inn yet either.

I was virtually alone in my home. Hao, my brother-in-law was lurking somewhere around the house, most likely sulking, but he wouldn't bother me. Hao always got sulky when it rained, so it goes without saying that he had been in a pretty rotten mood lately. It hadn't stopped raining for a couple days now. I think he hated the rain because it always rained when Ivy cried.

The only other person in the house was my sister, Ivy, or Valerie, whichever you prefer. She was off sulking somewhere as well. She'd also been depressed lately for some unknown reason. I couldn't imagine why, though. She was finally reunited with her husband. Ivy was melodramatic that way, hopelessly caught up in her own self-constructed soap opera.

I walked slowly down the steps with a laundry basket filled to the brim with dirty clothes. I was on my way to the washroom to drop the clothes off. I myself would never dream of actually doing manual labor such as doing the wash, but I was kind enough to Hao to gather the clothes for him and put them in the laundry room. He could do the wash later after he was done moping.

I was almost to the bottom of the stairwell when the shrill shriek of a cat's wail met my ears. I fell down the remaining step and the basket of clothes went flying. An orangey-red tabby cat scurried away, keeping his injured tail close to his body. Luckily I hadn't been hurt, but I was very mad, to say the least, at that stupid stray.

It hissed evilly at me, as if reading my nasty thoughts about it. "And just what are _you_ doing in my house?" I growled at the cat, kicking it lightly, so that I didn't hurt it too badly.

The tabby hissed again before taking its humanoid shape. Lucifer glared at me. "You didn't have to kick me, Anna. I was only taking a nap. Plus, you stepped on my tail." Lucifer still retained his cat ears and tail, both of which he flicked angrily at me.

"You shouldn't be here impersonating a cat Lucifer." I glared again, stooping down to pick up the dirty laundry.

Lucifer retracted his ears and tail and bent down to help me gather the clothing scattered on the floor. "I wasn't doing anything wrong, you jerk."

"Don't give me any lip, demon. Why are you here?" I picked up the basket and made my way to the washroom.

"I was looking for your sister." Lucifer fell in step behind me. "Speaking of which, is that her bra?"

I swatted his hand away as he reached for the black lacey object. "You really are a stalker. I should exorcise you now and save time later."

"God, Anna, you're mean." The demon rubbed the hand I had hit. "Is it a crime if I'm in love with her?"

"Yes. They have laws against stalking people, even if you think that stupid human laws don't apply to you." I dropped the basket of clothes on the floor of the laundry room and walked back to the kitchen.

Lucifer changed back into a cat and followed me. Somehow he must have known that Hao was sitting in the kitchen at the table. "Good morning Hao."

"It's past noon." My brother-in-law didn't look up from the morning's paper as I walked over to the sink to wash dishes. Lucifer followed me, rubbing up against my legs like a real cat.

"And yet you are still in your pajamas." I countered.

Hao looked himself over and shrugged. It was true that he was still wearing black cotton sleeping pants and a faded mahogany bathrobe, but Hao didn't seem to care, nor plan on changing any time soon. "You're not dressed up much either Anna." It was the usual back and forth argument between Hao and me. We never seemed to be able to get along.

I looked over my plain floor-length black dress; similar to the one I had worn during my youth. It was a bit dirty, dusty since I had been doing chores the whole morning. I wore a simple white smock, and had my long fawn hair up in a ponytail to keep it out of my way. It was true that neither of us were very dressed up at all.

"What's up with the cat, Anna?" Hao gestured with little interest towards Lucifer in his tabby cat form.

"The annoying little creature won't leave me alone. I keep trying to get rid of it, but the pest just won't go away." I finished with washing up the dishes, and pulled out a clean mug to make coffee.

"Hmm…" Hao made a small noise just for the purpose of showing he had heard me. There was no real significance in our exchange of empty words.

'Looking back…I am so glad that I didn't sleep with him that one night on the roof in Patch Village. If I had married him instead we would have had a pretty dry relationship. I mean, look; we can't even stand to talk to each other for a few minutes! How long would we have lasted as a couple?'

"Still thinking about that night Anna?" Hao chuckled evilly.

He had been listening in on my thoughts. I blushed and kept my back to him, facing the sink. "Hao Asakura, you are pure evil! Listening in on a lady's thoughts."

"Act outraged all you want, I know that you're embarrassed to be caught thinking like that about me." I needn't look at him to see the smirk on his lips.

"You really are horrible." I bit back. My blow had little to no effect on him.

He got to his feet and stood behind me, as if considering…doing something. "It would have been fun." He whispered in my ear; his warm breath tickling my neck.

"Stop." I commanded weakly. I could really care less what he did.

"Is that what you really want?" I didn't know if Hao was picking my thoughts or what, but it scared me at how accurately placed his words were.

"You'd take advantage of me while my husband—your only brother—isn't home?" 'He's never home…and I'm always lonely…maybe…No. Not with his brother.'

Hao smiled like a cat that got into the cream. "Is Yoh ever home anymore?" The elder Asakura twin wickedly picked out my weak points. "I'm lonely too, Anna. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if we…. Just this once? Why didn't we do anything before? That one night so long ago? I can't remember…"

'You said you didn't feel anything for me.' I didn't answer his question out loud. I didn't trust my voice as he sucked at the tender parts of my neck, sinking his teeth gently into me in all the right places.

"Well maybe being completely starved of love for the past month that I've been here has made me desperate enough to want you?" He was so mean, blatantly admitting that he didn't care for me at all, but still trying to seduce me just because he wanted someone to screw.

'But still…something is better than nothing right? Yoh and I haven't done anything together for over three months…not even a walk in the park let alone…' A small tear escaped from my eyes.

Hao gently licked it away. "Poor Anna…I'm sorry that my little otouto isn't such a great lover. I guess I got all the skill in that area." He turned me around and nibbled at my throat, right by the jawbone.

"Hao, I command you to stop right now." My voice quivered.

"Or what?" Hao smirked back at me, sneering and taunting.

"I refuse to be unfaithful to my husband with his twin brother!" I swatted Hao away half-heartedly with little to none of the desired effect.

"He's been unfaithful to you." As soon as Hao said it, he looked like he wanted to take it back. The look on his face was one of 'I shouldn't have said that.' or 'Yoh trusted me and I let him down.'

"With whom?" Hao looked away, weakly wishing to be anywhere but there at that exact minute. My brother-in-law shook his head and shrugged, feinting ignorance. "Hao!" He shrugged again. "It was Valerie, wasn't it?" He cast his gaze at the floor. "It was. I can see it in your eyes." My hands were shaking, and my gaze was faintly blurred by my own tears. "Hao?"

He looked up at me with questioning eyes. "Hm?—Mm!" Hao tried to jerk away as I kissed him, forcing my lips against his, but his resistance didn't last long. I ignored the fact that Lucifer was still in the room, and threw myself full force at Hao.

When he broke away for air, I took the opportunity to question him. "So how long has this been going on behind my back?"

"Anna…" Hao whined in protest. "You know I didn't mean to say anything. Forget that I ever told you." Hao returned to fiercely attacking my neck. He slipped off his bathrobe, throwing it on the back of one of the kitchen chairs; he unzipped the top half of my dress and let it slide down.

I let his hands wander my body as his tongue explored my mouth. All the while my mind told me what I was doing was wrong. 'But it's been so long…Yoh doesn't care anymore. He's cheated on me too, so technically I'm not doing anything wrong.' Lucifer nudged my foot urgently as if he was trying to tell me something, but he couldn't say anything because Hao was there and it would mean compromising his cover. All the sudden I felt sick. 'Damn this morning sickness…'

Hao had heard my thoughts. He pulled away and looked at me wide-eyed, "You're—!"

The faint sound of the kitchen door clicking shut cut Hao off. There, staring at us was my husband, soaked to the bone from the rain. His eyes were devoid of emotion at first as he objectively took in the scene, trying to find a reasonable explanation that would prove he hadn't just witnessed his wife making out with his older twin brother. Soon the dark abyss in his eyes was filled with hurt. He glanced questioningly at me, but only for a split second. He couldn't take the sight of me, half topless in his only brother's arms with hickeys up and down my neckline. The look in Yoh's eyes turned to vicious, spiteful, malicious hate when his gaze fell upon Hao.

"How…could…you?" Every syllable was oozing with murderous intent.

"Yoh…" I tried to explain to him that it wasn't what it looked like, but it _was._ It really was what he thought it was. I was caught in the act of adultery, and there was no talking my way out of what he saw. I couldn't even mutter a small 'I'm sorry.'

He must have gotten back from his trip early, and had entered at the exact wrong moment. Yoh turned his back to us and reopened the door to the back yard. He set his suitcases and things on the floor, and took only a jacket. "Sorry, didn't mean to interrupt. I'll come back later." My husband disappeared back out into the pouring chilly rain. I could only let him go and pray that he came back. There was no use trying to talk to him until he calmed down.

Only after the door slammed shut did I come to my senses. Hao and I still had our arms around each other, and I was still half dressed. I drew back away from him and re-zipped my dress. Only then did the tears come. Whatever hope I had had of salvaging my relationship with Yoh was dead.

"I'm sorry." Hao's faint whisper caused me to look up and wipe away the oncoming flood of tears. "Anna, I am so sorry. I didn't mean for things to happen like this; I was only teasing, but…. God, I'm an idiot."

"Shut up." I choked back more tears and tried to save face. "It's not completely your fault. I shouldn't have let you. I could have stopped you at any time, but I didn't try hard enough."

He let the silence rein as he picked up a mug from the rack-full I had just washed and started the coffee maker. "So…are you really…?"

"So you heard that 'morning sickness' comment?" I groaned inwardly. I hadn't even told Ivy yet, and here I was talking about such things with my stupid brother-in-law.

"Yep."

I handed Hao another mug, deciding that some coffee would be good for me, but just a small cup. Too much caffeine would be bad for the baby. "Yes, I'm three months pregnant. I haven't told anyone yet."

"Why not?" My pesky houseguest bothered the hell out of me.

"Because, that's why. It's better this way. No one fusses over me, and no one babies me. I'm not made of porcelain, and I don't like being treated like I am. It's not like Yoh cares; he's not home enough to. I'm surprised I even got pregnant again. I didn't think I was ever going to. He stopped taking me on trips, and we grew further and further apart…. I wouldn't see him for months at a time. Whenever he was home, on that rare occasion he would always be too tired to do anything with me. I considered myself lucky if I was ever able to have more than a few word conversations with him. I was always lonely. He was never there for me anymore. I missed him. I tried not to be angry with him since it wasn't his fault. He had held up his end of the bargain; he had made me Shaman Queen, and he gave me my Inn and my easy life. I tried not to complain, but I wanted him to be with me. I never thought that being Shaman King would take over his life so completely. It did though. I could actually feel the love we had once shared dying. We didn't know each other anymore. We still loved each other, but it was a dry, stale love. I was still in love with the lazy shaman I had trained, and he was still in love with his heartless ice queen of a trainer. He wasn't my lazy shaman, and I wasn't his ice queen anymore…. We had both grown up…and we had changed. I didn't say anything to him about it because I didn't want a divorce. I want to stay trapped in this dead end marriage because I still love him, and if we ever did get divorced, I really would be all alone…. Just like I was before I met him…" Without my having noticed, I had started crying lake-fulls of tears, and Hao had taken me in his arms and was holding me in his embrace.

"I'm sorry… I didn't mean to—to…" I shut up and let him comfort me.

"Maybe you can still save your marriage. I'll talk to Yoh about it later when he comes back if he'll listen to me. He still loves you Anna. He probably doesn't even realize that you're hurt."

"Thank you." I dried my eyes and left in the direction of the living room. I couldn't stand being around Hao anymore. The little Lucifer cat followed close behind me, occasionally glancing up at me worriedly. "What do you want?" I spat at the orange tabby.

"I'm sorry Anna." Lucifer transformed back into his human form as I took a seat on the windowsill in the living room. "I tried to warn you that he was coming, but with Hao there and everything, I couldn't very well start speaking or anything."

"It's not your fault." I offered him minimal comfort. "Now, let's get down to business; how's the plan going?"

"Hm? Oh! Yes, the plan is going quiet well. Thorn is falling in line nicely, and so are Ivy and Hao and Hana and Akira and Hoshi. Everyone else too is acting according to plan. Everything's splendid." Lucifer smiled happily at me.

I easily saw through his bluffing. "So, in other words, things are a complete disaster?"

"I'm afraid so." The devil rolled his eyes in a frustrated manner. "Ivy is being difficult as expected, and Hoshi is an evil, conniving witch, and Hao is figuring things out too fast, and Akira is being stubborn, and Hana is being indecisive, and Thorn is falling in love with Hana—"

"Hana! MY Hana?" I was shocked to hear this turn of events.

"Yes, your son and your niece are falling for each other. I don't know if either will act on their feelings though. It's hard to tell. Hana is such a gentleman, and Thorn is such an idiot…."

"You like her though." I smirked, enjoying making him turn different shades of violet.

"So what if I do?" He blushed just as I thought he would.

"It's all right. I don't care as long as you stick to the plan. We have a plan for a reason. So, I'm trusting you. You better not let me down." I glared at his reflection in the glass of the window.

Lucifer turned into a cat as Thorn walked through the living room and greeted me. "Hello Auntie Anna. I'm sorry if I get the floor wet; I was just on my way up to change clothes."

"It's not a problem, Thorn dear." I nodded pleasantly at her and watched as she passed.

Lucifer changed back when she was gone. "I won't let you down. This plan not only serves your purposes, but mine as well." A sick, triumphant grin claimed Lucifer's face, contorting it even further.

"You'd better not, or it will be your head or some such nonsense. Now, what of your brother?" I moved on down the checklist of things to talk with him about.

"My brother? What about him?" Lucifer tensed at the mentioned of his elder sibling.

"You haven't told him anything have you?" I drilled into him for answers.

"No. Nothing."

"And you're sure that he won't interfere?" I checked.

Lucifer nodded, responding: "He doesn't know anything about what I'm doing, so how could he? I had nothing to do with what happened to those girls if that's what you're thinking…"

Hana walked slowly, drenched form the rain, through the living room and up the stairs, giving our business meeting only a brief glance and minimal interest. In truth he didn't care. My son was nosey, but he knew when not to interfere, and he knew that anything I was involved in need not be explained. Everything would play out sooner or later, and everyone would know what I was plotting. I ignored his short-lived presence in the room.

"Lucifer, that's a completely unrelated topic, but that Detective Lyserg did come asking about you. I told him that he was crazy, and that he was being too religious to believe that you actually existed."

"Wow…thanks Anna." The demon king sulked, moping openly in front of me.

"Don't mention it." I heard faint footsteps, like that of an empty corpse, coming back down the stairs, so I had Lucifer change back into a cat. My sister looked deathly pale and overwhelmingly sick as she descended the stairs and headed in the direction of the kitchen.

"Hey Anna." Ivy lifted a tired hand in greeting.

"Ivy? Are you feeling okay? You look awful!" I rose to my feet and hurried over to my sister.

"I'm fine Anna. It's this body; it's breaking down. At least this one lasted longer than the others. The prototypes are getting better." The young woman smiled weakly.

"Maybe you should go upstairs and lie down." I suggested as I scrutinized my sister.

"But my bedroom is—"

"—I know, but Hao is down here, and I don't want him seeing you like this. Go lie down upstairs, and I'll have Faust start on a new body for you as soon as he gets home with the groceries." I gently nudged her in the direction of the stairwell.

"Okay. If that's what you think is best." Ivy started on her way up the stairs, but for a minute looked like someone had pinched her as she remembered to ask me something. "Oh, and I almost forgot, Anna? You wouldn't happen to have feelings for Hao, would you?"

Her asking of that question so soon after what I had been doing with Hao made me more than a little nervous. Ivy would hate me and mistrust my motives if she thought that Hao and I were having an affair. "I—what are you talking about? I have a husband already—Hao's TWIN BROTHER. Don't be ridiculous."

"Oh…all right then. I was just wondering, because even if I hadn't seen you two in the kitchen together, I can tell by those marks on your neck. I've gotten plenty of my own to learn to recognize his handy-work." Ivy turned on her heel and stomped up the stairs. Outside, the storm picked up, Ivy's foul mood taking a turn for the worse.

"Ivy! Wait!" I started up after her, but a cat caught the hem of my dress in his mouth and pulled lightly, motioning for me not to go. "And why shouldn't I go after her? Because of something on your hidden agenda?" I sent one of my famous glares Lucifer's way.

The little demon in kitty form, dropped my skirt and changed back into the Hao-like menace form I had become accustomed to. "No. Not really. I just think it's best. Let her cool off. Then you can talk to her. Just like what Hao's doing with Yoh. Actually, this wasn't originally part of the plan, but I think it works in rather nicely since we _are _trying to pull them apart first before we push them together." His cute smile turned vicious smirk.

"I don't think we wanted this big of a chasm in their relationship. Just a little rift to be patched up." I remained the voice of reason as he plotted bigger, more elaborate things than we had first planned.

"Oh but Anna, this way is more fun for me. More drama, you understand. I'm such a drama queen, and I haven't had this much excitement since I,SR. Now THAT was what I call fun." Lucifer was getting more and more into this by the second. Soon he would be so deep in his plotting that it would be hard to pull him out.

I tried to stop him by playing his weakness for Ivy. "But I do feel sorry for my sister though…she's always a pawn in these things. I feel that she can only be used so much before she breaks."

"No, Anna. Ivy's no pawn, but the Queen. She can be used however we want, and she'll never let us down." The cat-like smile returned to his face, showing his pleasure in scheming and messing with my younger twin.

"Lucifer, do you think it's wrong to play God with people?" I asked in earnest.

"Of course it is. That's what got my brother and me kicked out of Heaven. You can never replace God, but you can have a hell of a lot of fun trying." Such a typical Lucifer answer.

"We'll try it your way then, but if it ever gets out of hand, I reserve the right to veto." I rolled my eyes as he did a 'happy dance'.

"You will _not_ regret this Anna! This is going to be sooooo much fun!" I tried to look the other way as Lucifer 'happy danced' all about the room.

I tried even harder not to kill him as he hugged me. "Lucifer. Let. Go. Of. Me. Now."

"Sorry." The devil bashfully rubbed the back of his neck. Something at the top of the stairs caught his eye, and he hurried to get away. "Um…I gotta go. I'll see you later Anna?" Before I could ask the reason of his hasty departure, he was gone in a small poof of smoke, and thunderous footsteps raced down the stairs. Ivy appeared before me, looking severely muddled.

"Uh…" She stared at me.

"Um…" I stared back at her. Neither of us said anything of real importance.

"I'm sorry for over reacting before." She bowed politely, but before I could accept her apology and offer her one of my own, she raced on to her next sentence, not even waiting for me to speak. "I need some advice." She pulled me over to the couch and sat me down.

"What kind of advice?" I tentatively asked. It had been a weird day, and people were having serious mood swings.

"Um…well…is it wrong to fall in love with your cousin?" She was completely serious.

'Where did that come from?' Ivy's urgency about the matter confused me greatly. "I suppose yes. That would be incest, wouldn't it?"

"I suppose…. So it would then be wrong to sleep with your cousin?" She fidgeted in her seat.

"Uh…yes." I blinked awkwardly. 'What _is_ she getting at?'

"So you don't support incest?" Ivy played nervously with the hem of her skirt.

"Of course not! Ivy, what the hell is going on?" I was fed up of her mysteriousness.

"It's Thorn and Hana. Upstairs. In her bedroom." Ivy blubbered out all the information that I needed to know.

"Why didn't you say something sooner!" I got to my feet and stormed up the stairs, pulling Ivy up right behind me.

"I don't know! I didn't know what to do!" We reached the landing at the top of the stairs just in time to see Hana exit Thorn's room looking a bit disheveled and totally depressed.

The three of us stared at each other, not daring to break eye contact. No one spoke. The tension grew thicker as the seconds ticked off the clock.

Hana was the first one to look away. His gaze dropped to his feet and he pushed past us. "Nothing happened, and nothing is ever going to happen, so just leave me alone." The teen slumped down the stairs and headed toward the kitchen to go out into the back yard.

I sent a worried look my sister's way. She returned the look. "Should I go after him?"

"No, Anna. He wants to be left alone." She paused for a minute, taking a look toward her daughter's door. "Do you think I should check on her?"

"No. Leave her to her own devices. Don't want her to think we've been spying on her do you? If she wants you to comfort her, then she'll come to you later." I patted my sister on the shoulder and guided her down the stairs.

"You're right. Still…what do you think happened?" She questioned me even though I had no knowledge of the situation.

"I can't even begin to imagine, Ivy. I can't even begin to imagine…" The storm got worse with the tears of two Allures raining down from the sky.

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Mikau: Well, that was depressing. It was fun to write for some reason… Oh well, who knows? I auditioned for a play yesterday, but I don't know when the cast list is going to be posted. It's a creative project, so students are going to be writing parts of the script. It's basically a collective work of poems and songs and short scenes revolving around the theme of Mothers and Daughters. I'm trying out for "Into the Woods" on December 12th, and am really excited about it. I don't know how I'm going to balance two plays along with everything else, but I still hope I get parts. It would be sooooo much fun! I just love the theatre!

Thanks to: ivyxhao 4 eva, kari tao (ren's little sister), KaZuYa MiNeKuRa, yo wuz up, Andrea Nefisto, Dannie, Sonseray, gothchibiangel666, and Touch of the Wind.

To Andrea Nefisto: "Hana wa desu." Is just Hana saying "It's me, Hana." Or "I'm Hana." Just me practicing a little Japanese. Thanks for the review!

PLEASE REVIEW!


	28. Demons and Witches

Mikau: Hello! I'm back. Unfortunately I don't feel any better… Oh well. Happy early birthday to Andrea Nefisto in case I don't get another chapter up by the 6th.

**_Disclaimer:_** I don't own Shaman King.

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Demons and Witches

_"The clock never stops never stops never waits. She's growing old. It's getting late. And so, he forgot he forgot maybe not. Maybe he's been seriously hurt. That'd be worse."_ The tune was hopelessly stuck in my head as I walked along the dirt road in the rain. My expensive orange boots were getting wet, and my meager clothing wasn't keeping me warm or dry. The stupid umbrella I had been carrying wasn't doing its job well either.

But still I walked on to the graveyard. Hardly anyone was out on the street because of the rain, and I was taking full advantage of the solitude that the weather offered. I hardly ever got to go out without getting catcalls from horny men, and I was enjoying the peace and quiet.

"Tweet. Tweet tweet tweet tweet tweet." My guardian ghost, Chip the sparrow, fluttered lightly at my side.

"Yes. I'm to visit the grave again. No. I didn't bring flowers. This wasn't a planned trip, and I don't have any money on me to buy any flowers." I answered my guardian absent-mindedly. It had taken me the first five years of my life to understand the bird, and now that I could freely converse with my friend, I took my gift for granted.

"Tweet tweet?"

"I don't think so. Thorn's a tough chick. She should be fine. Besides, as long as everything keeps going according to plan, everything will work out." We walked the long path to the graveyard, making pretty good time, considering that I was wearing those God-awful orange boots that were so hard to walk in.

When we reached the graveyard, I hopped the fence as was the custom. The lock had long since rusted shut permanently, and there was no opening it even if I had the key. Chip flew around the place, perfectly comfortable with his surroundings. He had been there so many times before that the place had become like yet another home to him.

"Tweet!" 'Look!' He said, pointing out the figure standing atop the hill.

"It's that same man again." I replied, referring to the man that often visited my mother's grave. He left flowers for her when he visited, so I could always tell when he had been there.

I made my slowly up the hill as to not alert him to my presence. I was able to sneak up behind him without him noticing me. He was talking to himself…well, in a sense, but really he was talking to her, the ghost of my mother. Even if she wasn't at her gravesite anymore.

"I hope you can forgive me Ivy; I really don't mean any harm with my plots, but there's no way to get around the girl getting hurt this time. I promise not to let her suffer."

The man looked like he was in his mid twenties, perhaps 24? I couldn't tell, but he looked familiar. He looked a little like my father with his long hair, but Hao had a lot of brown mixed in with the crimson of his hair, and this man that stood before me had completely auburn hair, a dark coppery crimson. His eyes were the same as Hao's though. The same two deep vats of dark chocolate. Maybe I was wrong…maybe his eyes were a different color than my father's. This man's eyes looked, perhaps, darker than my dad's. His two crystalline orbs were blacker than the darkest shadows of Hell itself. The more I looked at him, searching his face, the more I felt something nagging at me in the back of my mind, something telling me that I had seen this person before. I was so captivated studying his features that I didn't notice that he had stopped speaking. It was only when he spoke again that I snapped out of my daze.

"You know, you'd think that your father would have taught you that it's rude to stare." He turned on me and glared pleasantly at my shock. "But then again, Hao is probably a horrible father, so why would he teach you anything?"

Suddenly his name struck a cord in my mind and I remembered where I had met him before. "Lucifer. You're that man that was at our house that day a couple months ago." I glared back at him; Chip hovered at my side, waiting to see if he would be needed to protect me.

The glare left his eyes, but not his face. His eyes were now vacant of emotion. He looked liked the ones he over saw: dead. "Correct. Sorry if I insulted you when I was visiting. I did it for your father's benefit; I didn't mean it. You really are very pretty, and I wouldn't mind marrying you if you'd have me. Hm?" The glare left his lips, and a teasing smile filled his eyes and face. "What do you say Hosh?"

"Don't call me that!" I snorted. "Only my sister calls me that…well sometimes my other family members do, but I reserve that privilege for family only. You are to call me Hoshi or Miss Asakura."

"Fine. Hoshi. You didn't answer my question. It's not like you'd get any other marriage offers given your line of work." That sly smile still painted his lips.

I resisted the urge to kill him. "You must be joking." I shrugged off the unwanted amorous attention I was getting from him.

"Actually, you're right, but it appears that you don't have much of a sense of humor. You really are no fun." He took a seat next to the grave and set a single red rose at the base of the ivy-covered cross. A sad smile adorned his face. 'You don't even get angry with me like your mother did.'

I ignored his thoughts. Pretending that I couldn't hear him gave me the upper hand. He would guard his thoughts carefully if he knew I could hear. "Oh really? So now I'm no fun. I know thousands of men who would argue with you."

"That really is sick, you know?" He smiled at me again, a mischievous grin unlike the sad shadow of a smile he had shown before. He titled his head at me when I didn't respond. I was too busy studying his facial features.

He looked nothing like my father. Lucifer's face was slightly paler, and definitely thinner. His nose was smaller, and his eyes slightly bigger, but like my father, he used his eyes to show what emotion he was truly feeling. I loved his eyes. I had always had a weakness for beautiful eyes, and his were gorgeous.

"You're staring again."

I blinked rapidly to clear the glazed look from my own eyes. I quickly made an excuse. "You'll have to forgive me; I'm curious, that's all. This is my first time being so close to a demon."

"You've been closer before." He didn't smirk. He presented the information as fact and fact alone. I raised an eyebrow in a questioning gesture. He quickly supplied an answer to my unasked question, "All the men you entertain; your customers could all be classified as demons if you think about it."

"You're right." It was a hard statement for me to admit.

"Are you going to sit down?" He gestured to the other side of the tombstone. He wanted me to sit on the opposite side of the grave and face him. "The ground is perfectly dry."

I bent slightly to feel of the ground. He was right again. I sat and tucked my legs underneath me, looking somewhat like a cat curled up beneath the old tree. "How?" I restricted myself to few-word sentences.

"Rain doesn't dare touch Ivy's grave. It's sort of like how a pampered dog doesn't dare bite its master. There's about a five foot range around the grave where the rain doesn't fall."

"I see." I nodded absentmindedly as my fingers nimbly traced the 'December 25th' death date on the headstone.

"You know, you're really…the way that you plot and scheme, playing people the way you do…like they're your chess pieces. Well, I think it's cute." A sincere, bashful smile played upon Lucifer's face

I checked his face for any sign of taunting, teasing, or dishonesty. He was speaking the truth from his heart. I wasn't quite sure what to say to that. The devil had just called me cute. "I…" I tried not to let my speech falter too much. "I wouldn't expect something like that from someone like you." I decided a relatively generic statement would be best.

"'Someone like me'? You say that like you know me. You really don't know anything." The laity in his voice disappeared and a sullen tone replaced it.

"Hm…you're right again. Three times in a row…perhaps I should stick around and let you explain yourself. But really, you can't blame me for stereotyping with all the stories of you betraying God and the angels. There're so many rumors against you. Plus, you've probably got some preconceived ideas about me that aren't necessarily true. I think we owe it to ourselves to not make up our minds about what kind of person a person is until we know that individual. Personally I'm not interested in getting to know you, and am content to live in my little delusion that you are pure evil."

I got up to leave, but he stopped me with his voice. "I've never had a girlfriend before."

I blinked. What kind of an answer was that? I turned and looked down at him, casting him a quizzical gaze.

He looked back at me with truly innocent eyes. "You think I was the one who raped you and stole your virginity, but it wasn't me. I've never had a girlfriend, I've never been married, and I've never raped anyone. Do you think I really am a perverted creep like that? That's just who I pretend to be…to cover up the fact that I've never actually slept with anyone…"

I sat back down. "Then I think I might have just framed you… This Detective Lyserg guy has been snooping, and I left him a clue with your name on it. _Diablo_, 'devil' in Spanish. I left it for him on a piece of paper in the coffee shop where he works. That is…if he ever finds it and understands the meaning behind it." I felt pretty badly framing an innocent man even if he was Satan.

Somehow Lucifer seemed to find this mildly amusing. He chuckled to himself. "Diablo, hn? Hehehe…. That's something else I was about to tell you about." His tone returned to a serious one. "The other reason I put up this jerky, perverted façade is because I'm trying to escape from my elder brother's shadow. We look almost identical, but he's several hundred years senior to me. He was the original 'devil'. As you may know from your rumors and stories, I used to be an angel, but then I was accused of rebelling against the boss and trying to replace God as the ruler. Truth is, I was framed. My brother pretended to be me, and he let me take the wrap for him. I was thrown out of Heaven and condemned to roam the earth in chains for eternity. Ten years later they finally sorted the whole matter mess and my brother was tossed out of Heaven too, but they wouldn't give me back my wings even though I was innocent. Heaven is really screwed up that way. You don't want to go there. Go to Limbo. Lots of nightclubs, Karaoke on Wednesdays, Spring break in the Bahamas, Ski trips in the Alps, the best international buffet ever invented, and limbo competitions on Fridays. I figure with a flexible body like yours, you should have to problem claiming the title. Anyway, I was furious with Heaven's screwed up system, so they gave my brother and I domain over a burning wasteland in the earth's core. They called it Hell and sent all the extremist sinning humans there when they died. My brother took over the place and nearly exiled me. Our mother had a fit. I was her pet, and I was to be treated with some respect. My elder brother was always the favorite though. I was always trapped in his shadow when we were young. Even now I still haven't managed to get out of his cold silhouette. My brother ruled for the first couple thousands of years, but I took over about a thousand years ago when he got sick of being 'The Devil'."

I knew what he meant, being trapped underneath the favorite child. Thorn was Hao's favorite, his little angel. I was the perfect representation of his failures and shortcomings. I could never measure up to Thorn. I could then easily identify with Lucifer, and somewhere deep down I sort of pitied him. He was like me; we had something in common.

"My brother still watches me and monitors me all the time. He hates it when I come up to the surface to mess with humans. He especially hates it when I visit Ivy. He wants her, but can't have her. That's why he raped girls that looked somewhat like her and marked them with that 3 scar. Diablo is obsessed with Ivy. He wants to wipe out all humans, dominate the world, and take Ivy as his bride. Of course he would be semi-satisfied with an Ivy look-alike as his personal slave, but don't worry, he's not very smart or well informed, so he doesn't know a thing about your little sis." Lucifer seemed to stop in mid thought. "You know, no one has ever gotten me to volunteer that much information of my own free will without torturing me before…. How did you do that? I told you all that because I was afraid that you thought I was a rapist, and I didn't want you to think badly of me…. Why do I care what someone like you thinks?" Lucifer tried to puzzle it out, but I cut him short.

"What do you mean 'a person like me'! I let you explain yourself, now you let me explain!" My temper flared at the demon.

"Cool your jets little witch; you don't need to explain because I already know. You got tricked when you were a kid. My brother Diablo raped you and marked you with that little 3, and after that you just kind of broke down and started acting out. You figured you were ruined anyway, so why not make some money. The money, your father's bad habits, living up to your mother's reputation, getting out of your little sister's shadow, they were all contributing factors to your down fall. You played the part of the sluty ditz well, but I know that's not really how you are. I was just teasing with the 'people like you' thing. It's not your fault that you have to keep up that charade to feel safe. It's society's fault for not protecting you in the first place. I'm sorry that you're life is so messed up, but maybe there's hope for you still." Lucifer smiled playfully as he rustled my damp hair.

Suddenly he looked as if he remembered something. He looked down at his watch, and for a split second, I swear I saw his eyes widen in mild surprise. "So late already… I have to go Hosh." He winked at the unauthorized use of my pet name. "We'll speak later, but I have to get back below ground before Diablo notices how long I've been gone."

I nodded. "Maybe you're not as bad as I though…Lucy." I quietly mocked him and his girly nickname.

"Only Ivy can call me that." Lucifer automatically bristled like a cat having water sprinkled on it. "Hao just does it to be annoying, but usually I only allow the women I love to call me by such a floofy pet name. I suppose I can let it slide this once. By the way, have fun with your little chess match. You think you're the one moving pieces around, but keep in mind that Anna thinks _she's _the one in control. But of course Hao thinks that he is the mastermind of the game…then again, Ivy is clueless that her life is being manipulated. Thorn is even worse than Ivy, Akira, Hana, Makoto, and Ivory know nothing, but at least Hana knows that he knows nothing, and that is why he is the most informed. He is aware of the plotting and multiple levels of planning that are going on. Several games overlap, and many players come in and out of power and control so fast. No one knows everything except the grand orchestrater of it all. No one seems to know who that is though… One thing I must question though, is 'are we the players or the pieces on the game board?'" There was a taunting in his voice that was not directed at me, but at the entire human race. His tone held connotations of amusement at the foolishness of the humans scurrying around thinking that they were in control of their lives when in reality, an unseen force was pulling all the strings.

Before he disappeared, Lucifer kissed me quickly on the cheek. "I meant it when I said I thought that you're cute."

My heart jumped in my chest. My hand automatically flew to the offending organ. 'That shouldn't have happened. I'm too far-gone to be effected by a whisper of a kiss on my cheek. That shouldn't have happened.' I repeated my mantra several times in my head as I walked home in the storm as it picked up. I was too dazed to even open my umbrella. (Not that it would have worked anyway. It was not as water resistant as the makers would have you believe.)

My guardian, Chip, flew right behind me, twittering some sort of something, trying to communicate with me. I completely tuned the sparrow out. My mind was whirling in circles, and I couldn't devote any brain cells to listening to my little bird friend or anything else unnecessary at the moment.

'Why did he kiss me? Is he trying to confuse me? Is he trying to get to my sister while my guard is down? Is he trying to trick me into trusting him so that he can backstab me later or use me as he wills in his twisted extended chess metaphor? He wants to gain my trust so he can trick me, right? Do I trust him? What danger does he pose to Ivy? To Thorn? What about my plans for Thorn and Akira? Is he using me, or does he really just want a friend? Or maybe he wants more from me. He is a man after all. I know all about that subject. I know too much about that subject. I've been tricked before, and I may be walking straight into another trap right now. Do I want to risk it? Is he being sincere? Is he warning me or trying to help? Does he want me dead? Was he just feeding me those lies in the graveyard to get me off my guard? Were they really lies, or am I just talking myself in circles because I don't want to admit that I've finally found someone who understands me? Could it be that…I'm falling in lo—'

My face made a sicken SMACK as it connected with the floor. I had miss-stepped and fallen on my face. I had been lost in my thoughts, and I had absent-mindedly walked home, opened the door, and tripped on the steps going into the Asakura Inn. My foot had slid right off the step, and my knee slammed was battered and bruised as it hit the edge of the stairs.

I was slightly disoriented at least. My knee was bleeding, and I didn't even want to look in a mirror to see the facial damage. My father came running from the kitchen to see what had happened, but my Aunt Anna, who was stationed in the living room, got to me first.

Anna inspected me and offered me a hand up, if I could stand. "Are you all right Hoshi? Nothing broken? Any cuts? Bruises? Scraps?" She clucked her tongue lightly when she caught sight of the blood. "Had a bad spill didn't you…best not to move you around too much."

"What going on?" Hao rushed into the room, but was less keen to be filled in when he realized that Anna was in the room. "Oh…Hello Anna." He stiffened, but tried not to be too awkward.

"Hello Hao." Anna too had gone rigid. As if it had been rehearsed, they looked away at the same moment and blushed. Something had happened between them, I was sure of it. Too bad I was too disoriented to say anything.

When my father noticed my condition, he rushed to my side. "Hoshi! Are you okay! What happened!"

"She had quite a fall." Anna's cold voice returned to a professional tone, losing the awkward teen crush behavior patterns. "She's a bit dumb-struck now, but she should be fine once Faust fixes her up."

"I'll go get Faust now." Hao offered, returning minutes later with the German doctor and his beautiful nurse of a wife.

"Ah…just a little blood and a slight daze. No major head injuries, and the knees should be healed up and scarred over in a day or two." The German couple rushed off to their bedroom to do god knows what after they had finished wrapping me up and diagnosing my condition.

"How do you feel?" My dad loomed over me, looking worried like a mother hen over her eggs.

I smiled weakly at him, my head feeling like it was going to burst. "I'll be fine. I just need to lie down. Can you carry me to the couch?"

Hao looked at Anna, and Anna nodded before looking away like an embarrassed schoolgirl. My aunt left my father and me alone as she hurried up the stairs, and Hao carried me over to the couch. "You can't go to sleep though. People with head injuries that go to sleep end up with concussions and comas and all sorts of bad things." He smiled gently as he set me down.

"All right Dad. I won't go to sleep as long as you sit with me and make sure that I don't." I tried to smile back, but my headache was not receding. In fact, I think it was getting worse.

"Sure." Hao took a seat next to me on the couch, let my head rest in his lap. He played with loose strands of my hair and just smiled down at me. "I'm sorry."

It was a shock to hear my father apologize. He normally didn't, and he hadn't done anything wrong. "For what?" I mumbled back up at him.

"For being a horrible father. I feel guilty for never being there for you. I should have put more effort into raising my daughters than what I did feeding my obsession with women and beer. It's my fault that things are such a mess…"

"Dad, it's not your fault. Things just happen, and you can't do anything to stop them." I wondered silently in the back of my mind if he knew what all had happened to me. I had never told anyone, not even Thorn. But then I had to think that, of course, he knew. He was the greatest telepath on the face of the earth. He could read my thoughts like an open book. It was only natural that he found out about the rape and how I had gotten pregnant. My first and only time, and I had wound up with a kid. I panicked and got an abortion. I knew it was wrong to kill such a little baby who had done nothing wrong, but I had only just turned 13, and was nowhere near ready to have a child. Something went wrong with the procedure, and I wound up unable to ever have children. Lucifer was right, I had sat down, sobbed, and decided since my life was ruined anyway, I might as well make a business out of it. I was such a naïve idiot.

"Hey, what's up?" Thorn tentatively entered the room and sat down on the opposite side of the couch from me, on our father's left. Her face was tear-stained, and her eyes were red and puffy.

"You've been crying?" Our father inspected my younger sister's face.

"Mmhm." Thorn nodded, still sniffling.

Hao took Thorn in a one armed hug, and laid her head on his shoulder. "My poor girls. Sorry that I couldn't protect you from the real world."

"It's not your fault." My little sister sobbed, letting out all the tears.

I sat up and took our father's other shoulder. "Sooner or later we would have had to deal with the real world anyway." I too started sobbing.

"It feels like someone took a sledge hammer and crushed my heart." Thorn's tears continued to flow steadily down her cheeks.

"That usually comes with heartbreak." A new voice from the bottom of the stairwell echoed in the room. I looked up and Ivy was standing there crying softly along with the rest of us.

"It hurts so much though." Thorn whimpered.

"I know…. I know." Ivy came over and sat at Hao's feet, laying her had on his lap. "Having your heart smashed to pieces…it's all part of growing up."

"Sounds like you've had a bad day." I mumbled to my mother.

"Yeah, it's been pretty lousy. I'm getting nowhere with my stupid, pointless research, a couple of my concoctions blew up in my face today, and someone that I thought cared about me is having an affair with my sis—cousin, who happens to be married." Her voice rung hollow. "Plus I'm sick. I think I'm coming down with the flu or something. It's enough to make someone jump off a cliff." Ivy smiled, but the emptiness in her green eyes told other wise.

"I—Valerie..." My father made a paling attempt to explain. "Anna and I…we didn't—"

"—You're having an affair with Auntie Anna!" Thorn jerked her head off his shoulder and looked incredulously at our father. "How could you?"

"Thorn, no I'm not I—" I cut him off next.

"—So that's why you were so awkward around Anna. I thought that there was something going on between the two of you." I too lifted my head off his shoulder.

"It's not like that!" Hao pitifully tried to convince us that we were wrong.

"Then would you mind explaining what it was like?" A cold voice and a murderous glare in the direction of my father came from the damp form of Yoh Asakura. He had just gotten back from wherever he had run off to, and he was soaked to the bone from the heavy fall of rain caused by Allure tears. My uncle looked half insane as he stood there in front of the couch, waiting for his older brother to answer.

"Yoh…" Hao breathed. "There's nothing going on between Anna and me. I swear. Nothing happened—"

Ivy let out the breath she had been holding and stood. "Oh really? Hao, I know what I saw, and God, that was a hell of a lot of nothing going on between the two of you." She raised both hands defensively and took a step back. "But hey, if you want to have an affair, go right ahead. It's not like I care anyway." She turned her back to him and started to walk away. "I'll be locked in my room if anyone needs me. Try not to bother me unless it's really important though. I'm not in the mood for frivolity." And she was gone.

Yoh didn't wait for his explanation, and instead made his way to the kitchen.

Hao stood to follow his brother. "Some days love just doesn't seem worth it." He murmured softly to himself.

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Mikau: another depressing chapter…I'm beginning to see a pattern. Why are all my chapters so depressing now? I have no idea…maybe this is just a depressing story. Oh well. I hope you all are enjoying the story and aren't too bummed out by all the depressingness. Sadly I feel that the next chapter might not be any better. Yoh and Hao are going to have a little talk.

Thanks to: Firebane5, MaiValentinefan, HAO-Addictive, Addi-Lee, ivyxhao 4eva, Kiva Kyoyama, and knux33.

To Firebane5: Hey! It's okay, whenever you find time to review. I completely understand. It seems as if everyone is falling behind lately. I think I'm sort of picking up a little speed though, since it didn't take me a week or two to finish this, and I think I'm almost done with another chapter, so maybe that will be up on Monday or Tuesday. I really think that being in the musical slowed me waaaaaay down, but now that I don't have all those hours devoted to rehearsals and shows, I have free time. Of course then I have homework and projects and reports, but whatever. I'm trying to get into two other plays right now, so maybe I won't have as much time anymore, but it will be sooooooo much fun! I really loved Beauty and the Beast, so I'm really looking forward to Into the Woods if I make it. Again, I hear it's a very difficult musical to learn the music, and the staging and everything, and I don't know how we're going to make a house collapse in the second act, but it would be amazing to be a part of that show. Most of the parts are going to go to juniors and seniors, so since I'm only a sophomore, I'll be extremely happy if I get the part of Milky White the cow. No lines. No dancing. No singing. Just moving and being on stage. Sure, it's not the most glamorous part, but it's a whole lot better than not being in the musical at all. Plus, the cow gets to die on stage and then gets brought back to life. Someone has to take the little parts, and I'd be honored to…unless I get to be Little Red Riding Hood. Those are my two preferences, but it would rock my socks if I got cast at all. If I don't get cast, then I'll do crew. I'll still to hang out with actors some, and I'll get to be a part of the production. The other play I auditioned for (they still haven't put the cast list up yet) on Wednesday, was a creative project called Mothers and Daughters. It's a big collaboration of poems, songs, and little scenes pieced together all revolving around the relationship of mothers and their daughters. I have no idea how it's going to turn out, but I hope I get cast. On the 12th are the auditions for Into the Woods. Anyway, enough about my theatre obsession. Um, I think the Chronicles of Narnia comes out sometime this week…or around Christmas…hmm…I really don't know. I do know that Memoirs of a Geisha comes out on December 23rd though. I read that book for summer reading for my school, and it was pretty interesting, so I'm planning on seeing the movie. It won't be as good as the book (they never are), but it will be cool to see the movie of it. Both the movie and the book have their good points and bad. Speaking of bad, I feel bad for Hana. It's hard to be so mean to him and have him depressed, but we can't have incest going on. Poor guy never gets any breaks. -Hugs Hana- Well, things are getting more fun to write as I slowly start to unravel my well kept secret plans and plots. Wow this fun! LOL! Sorry for the randomness; thanks for the review!

To MaiValentinefan: Wow…good luck on opening night…if you guys make it that far…Are you having fun at least? It's only worth the frustration and long hours if you're having fun. You'll have to wait and see what all Lucifer and Anna's plans are, but it's going to be wrought with secrets and it will sometimes seem really drastic. It's going to be a pain to write, but I just know I'm going to have fun writing it. Thanks for the review!

PLEASE REVIEW!


	29. Brotherly Love

Mikau: Hey everybody! I'm in that Mothers and Daughters play that I auditioned for, so it looks like I'm busy again until February. Tryouts for Into the Woods are on Monday, and I'm soooo nervous. There are only 12 women's parts, and there are sooooo many Seniors and Juniors. I really don't think a mere Sophomore like me has much of a chance. Oh well, I'll probably be on crew. It'll be great fun. I'm still gonna audition though, they'll be needing a person to play Milky White the cow, and I intend to be there.

**_Disclaimer:_** I don't own Shaman King.

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Brotherly Love

"Yoh, I'm sorry." My younger brother sat at the kitchen table sipping a cold mug of coffee. I hadn't been aware that he actually liked coffee.

"Good for you. Now, leave me alone." My otouto snapped.

"Yoh, will you listen to me? I'm trying to tell you that I'm not having an affair with your wife!" My blood was positively boiling. He didn't believe me at all. I stood, moving about the room in a sort of pacing motion, trying to find a way to explain.

"So, how long has this been going on behind my back, _brother_?" He spit at me, stressing the word 'brother' in a way that implied he thought that I would be above sleeping with his wife just because of our blood connection.

"Nothing has been going on behind your back. Today was the only time we've ever done anything even remotely like that. We were talking and things got out of hand is all. Do you realize that while you're away on business trips for months at a time, she's alone here? She's lonely Yoh! She feels neglected!" I stopped in mid yell when I noticed the look in his eyes. He wasn't mad. He was hurt. A pathetic wounded animal.

"I know Hao. I know that I'm a horrible husband, leaving her like that, but there's no way around it. I've been trying to be better about it, but there is only so much one person can do. I understand why Anna would do something like this; it's my fault for not being there for her. I accept that it's my fault, and I'm going to have to deal with the consequences. I'm trying to patch things up with her. What I don't understand is why you're doing this to me. How could you betray me like that aniki? Is this some kind of twisted revenge for when I slept with Ivy?"

His words cut me. I hadn't thought of it like that before. I _had_ betrayed him…and I didn't know why.

My little brother continued. "You're not still mad about that are you? I thought that you said you forgave me, and I really am sorry Hao. And she wanted me to you anyway, the whole time, honest. I'm sorry, just please don't take my wife away from me." Tears ran down his cheeks unchecked as he begged me. "I'll do whatever it takes, whatever you want, just please leave Anna alone; I don't want to lose her."

I slowly walked back over to the table and looked down at my sobbing little brother. "Stop it. I'm not…I'm not mad at you Yoh. I haven't been for a long time now. Truthfully, I don't know why I got involved with Anna. I was just going to kiss her to tease her, but…then….I don't know…I…I don't really remember much up until you walked in on us. My body just sort of took over. I wasn't thinking., I swear, or I never would have done anything to her. I'm the one who should be apologizing, Yoh. You haven't done anything wrong, and the way I backstabbed you…I feel awful about it. It was just some spur of the moment thing, and we were just about to stop right when you walked in too…Anna would never turn on you like that Yoh, she loves you. She's just lonely that all. I'm sorry." I could only hope he would forgive me.

"Oh, is that all. Okay then, I guess it's all right if it doesn't happen again. I'd have to seriously hurt you then Onii-chan." A lazy grin returned to my little brother's face.

His smile was contagious, and I couldn't help but return it. "Thanks for understanding. I swear never to touch your wife again." I was about to stand and leave, but then I couldn't resist adding something. "Just make sure to keep your hands off of my Ivy too."

Yoh gulped and smiled nervously. "Sure thing bro. Speaking of which, you'd better go patch things up with her. She saw more than I did, and she seemed pretty mad. She might not be as reasonable as I was."

"Yeah…Hey…what's that smell?" I sniffed the air lightly.

"What smell?" Yoh gulped again.

"Alcohol." I barely whispered back to him. My little brother smelled like bar. "Yoh, where exactly did you go after you left us in the kitchen?" I leered down my nose at my otouto. I could smell the hard liquor on his breath.

"Um…nowhere." He lied, smiling sheepishly.

He wasn't drunk, so he obviously hadn't had much, but it was the principal of the thing. "Yoh…" My voice was a warning; he had better fess up right then and there. I didn't want my only brother to end up like me.

"Fine, but I only had a half a glass. I don't know how you drink the stuff Hao, it's nasty! I thought that maybe if it worked for you, it would work for me, but have to say, it was pretty disgusting, and I don't feel any better about myself at all…in fact, I think I feel worse." My cute little brother grinned widely at me, not looking half as bad as he claimed to feel.

"Promise me that you won't drink anymore." I demanded.

He nodded and looked up at me with innocent eyes. "I promise. Besides, it's no fun anyway. Don't you feel better now that you haven't been drinking for a few months?"

I smiled back at him and nodded. "You're right. I do feel better." I made my way to the doorway again, on my way to Ivy's/Valerie's room to apologize. I stopped half way to the door to look back at my twin. "Um…Anna is probably going to kill me for telling you, but I think that you have the right to know that…well…Anna's pregnant, Yoh."

I turned again to leave, but was yet again halted, this time by my other half's voice. "You lying bastard…" He seethed, ready to kill me.

I whipped around, immediately wishing that I hadn't seen my brother's face. There was hate, and above all, murder in his eyes. He wanted me dead, and he wanted to do it with his own hands. I couldn't imagine why he was acting so hostile. 'All I told him was that his wife was preg—Oh shit.'

"Yoh, that's not what I meant! With your child, not mine!" I backed away slowly, afraid for my life.

"What?" My other half cocked his head to the side, looking infinitely cute. The emotion drained from his eyes, so much like my own, and the two chocolate orbs were filled with confusion. "But I've barely seen her at all these past couple months, let alone…how could she be…with my…" He halted his speech, unable to come up with enough fragmented sentences to go on.

"She's three months pregnant." I supplied. "So, sometime around February? You really need to spend more time with your wife Yoh. But you know, I do too, so I'm going to go speak with Ivy and clear this mess up." I walked off, leaving my shorthaired counter part to work it out on his own.

"Thanks aniki." Yoh smiled at my retreating back, and I waved a hand to silence his thanks. I had done nothing to deserve any kind of thanking from him.

I walked up to Ivy's door and knocked. "Valerie? We need to talk."

"I'm not home." Her tear-laced voice answered.

"Please? Give me a chance?" Silence. I tried another tactic. "At least let me apologize."

"Apology accepted; now leave me alone." She was being as stubborn as ever.

"Come on Val, you and I both know that I'm going to stand here bugging you until you let me in, now it would be a lot faster if you just open the door now sooner than later." I tried my best to sound logical. She knew me well enough to know that I was determined.

The door opened wide enough for me to see her red, tear-stained eyes glowing in the dark. The lights were off in the room, and I couldn't see anything else. The door slammed in my face just as I was about to step in.

"Leave me alone Asakura." Things were never going well if she called me by my surname. "I've already accepted your apology, and I don't care to hear anything else you care to say. You'll just have to accept the fact that even if I accepted your apology, I'm still mad at you. Now, go away." The door relocked and I could here a soft thud and the rustling of water as she collapsed again upon her waterbed.

"Fine, if you want to be that way, I have no choice but to do this." I teleported inside her room and flicked on the lights.

She glared at me, not bothering to get up off the bed. "Don't you ever give up?"

"You know very well that I don't." I slunk over to her bedside and made myself comfortable lying next to her. "I want to talk to you about what you saw going on between me and Anna."

I paused for a moment to give her a chance to hit me, ridicule me, or pretty much do whatever she pleased. She remained silent, closing her eyes and training her ears in on the sound of my voice.

"What exactly did you see?" I gently inquired.

"Just you and her making out and you taking off her dress. I left after that. I have no interest in your secret love life." Her voice wasn't cold like her sister's, but it wasn't warm like her usual tone either.

"Yoh walked in on that part too. Nothing more happened. It was just a spur of the moment mistake…you know how lonely Anna gets? Yoh's never around, but she still wants to feel loved. It's not all that different from what you do with Yoh." Her eyes snapped open. She was reacting exactly like I had hoped.

"How did you know? Who told you? It was Yoh wasn't it. Does Anna know about this!" Fear was evident in her voice. She didn't' want to cause any further rifts in her sister's marriage, but it seemed as if she was causing them anyway.

"You just told me." Her face dropped. "It was only a suspicion before, but now that you've confirmed it…"

She propped herself up on an elbow, glaring down at me. "I swear, if you tell her I'll—"

I swept her elbow out from under her, knocking out her only support beam. She fell forward on top of me and I caught her with a kiss. I pulled back and smiled at her. "It's okay, no one needs to know. Do you understand now?"

"Yes, I believe I do." Her voice returned to its normal mellow tone, not too hot and not too cold. "Please just don't do it again. My heart can only take so much before it breaks." She rolled over on her back again and closed her eyes.

"I promise I won't just as long as you quit having your little flings with Yoh. My heart can only take so much too." I smiled as she smiled.

"I promise. Now, go to your own room. I'm really sick, and I don't want you catching anything." Ivy gently nudged me to get off the bed.

I opened my mouth to tell her I knew who she really was, but looking down at her, I realized it wasn't really a good time for such things. 'She'll tell me when she's ready.' I repeated this mantra in my head and left through the door that conjoined our rooms. "Good night, and sweet dreams."

"Night Hao. Love you." She smiled weakly at me as I left.

She looked close to death, but I put that thought out of my head quickly since the dead cannot die again. Unfortunately the thoughts of her lying dead followed me into my dreams. It really was too early to go to bed, only around eight o'clock at night, but I was tired from the taxing day, and I easily slipped into the land of dreams. I slept poorly since all of my dreams were nightmares brought on by the sight of Ivy lying on her bed looking to be at death's door.

_My little brother was on the ground and before he could jump to his feet I had my sword at his throat. Yoh sighed and smiled slightly up at me, accepting his defeat gracefully. "Promise me that you'll take good care of both Anna and Ivy."_

_"Don't worry about them." I would take care of both women. I raised my sword to stab Yoh right through the heart. Yoh just lay there and smiled sadly at his fate._

_"No…" Anna sunk to her knees and started to sob quietly._

_"YOH!" Ivy yelled, her face contorted in utter horror. She had never wanted us to fight over her; she wanted peace. She rushed towards us, stepping the way of my downward plunging blade. It was too late to call off the attack once I realized what was going on. It was too late to save her. Blood went everywhere. I didn't know her body even contained that much blood._

_My eyes widened in terror, and my grip on the sword handle went slack. I couldn't feel anything but the warm blood splattering over everything. My brain, body, and eyes were not cooperating, so I lost all orientation. I could only stand there looking stupid. My hands shook, and I slowly let the hilt of the sword roll out of my hand._

_Ivy caught the hilt as it fell out of my hand, and she held it steady so that it didn't move and worsen the wound. She cringed as her own blood smeared all over her hands. She evaluated the damage that the sword had done, but she didn't look scared at all by the steady stream of her own blood escaping her body. The sword had gone right through her chest and was sticking out the other side. 'It's a fatal would.' I heard her thought, but she decided not to voice it in case it would upset me. I don't think I could have been any more upset at that moment than I already was. I had killed her._

_She looked back up at me, no one emotion too heavily shining in her eyes. "You know, if we took the sword out, statistics show that a normal person could hold on to life for at least fifteen minutes more. I'm guessing a shaman would have longer. I'd say about twenty or twenty-five." She stopped for a moment, looking shaky and pale, like she might pass out at any moment. She placed a hand on my shoulder for support._

_My mouth and my brain finally found a connection, and apologies started leaking from my mouth. "Ivy…I'm so sorry! I didn't want to lose you, so I thought that if I killed him that you would be able to love me again. I love you…I didn't mean for you to suffer while waiting for death to come. I didn't want to lose you…I'm so sorry…can you forgive me! I love you…"_

_I felt like crying as she smiled at me. "It's okay. It's my fault. I shouldn't have…well I shouldn't have done a lot of things. There were a lot of things that you shouldn't have done too, but I don't think that either of us should be held accountable for anything that we've done. It really is everyone's fault, so there's no use blaming anyone. I forgive you if you forgive me."_

_"Of course." I could only summon a few words, not fully trusting my voice._

_"I'm not suffering, by the way." She diverted her eyes away from me. "You didn't hit the lungs, and you missed my heart. I'll have twenty or so minutes as soon as I get this out of my chest. I can pull it out without making the wound worse." She drew in a breath and held it as she pulled the sword from her chest. She lay the weapon down on the ground, but it proved to be too much effort for her, and she collapsed._

_"IVY!" The whole group of my brother's friends rushed forward to see what they could do. I rushed to get her in my arms, bumping heads with my brother on the way. He had had the same idea as I did. We glared and growled softly at each other before silently compromising to rest her in both of our arms._

_I sat dazed as she said her last good-byes to the group. She persuaded Yoh to marry Anna since Ivy was close to death anyway. My brother and she exchanged gushy words and a last kiss before he stood, transferring her solely into my embrace._

_She snuggled up against me and stared up into my eyes. I looked back down at her longingly, stroking her cheek and brushing away stray hairs. I couldn't believe that this was the last time that I would hold her like that_

_My mouth automatically broke the silence, blubbering something gushy. "After all this time…All of those times that you said that I had 'killed you' back when you were mad at me…I finally have. I've finally murdered you."_

_"I've murdered myself. You only helped me. I gave up my life the minute I was born. There was no avoiding this. I am but the embodiment of sorrow and suffering. I was doomed from birth to be miserable. Don't blame yourself." She smiled gently, not seeming to mind the pain. She cringed slightly as she coughed, disgusted at the sight of her own blood coming up._

_"I'm so sorry for everything Ivy…I love you. Please don't leave me!" I ignored the blood staining my clothes and held her anyway. I loved her and I was losing her._

_"Hao…you of all people should know that I can't help it. I'm not long for this world. I don't want to die, but there's nothing I can do about it." She barely managed a weak smile. She was trying to be brave for me._

_"I'll never see you again…" The thought hit me like a ten-ton anchor. "I just know that you'll get into Heaven, and once you're there you'll never be able to come back here. Ivy…you're not like me…when I die, I don't get to go to Heaven. I'll never see you again…I can't live without you…I love you…" The pain was unbearable, I didn't even bother hiding the tears._

_"True that we'll never see each other again, but…what if, in your next life you become a saint then die and go to Heaven? Sure it'll take another hundred or so years, but…I'll be there in Heaven still…you can see me then." Her words were just an empty attempt to comfort me. There was no hope of ever seeing her once she went to Heaven._

_"You and I both know that that won't work." Suddenly an idea struck me. "When I become Shaman King I'll resurrect you!"_

_"No Hao." Her voice was firm although her body was weak. "Don't bring me back. It's time for me to die. I'm going on to the next life, and that's final. I'm so sorry…I couldn't live as a ghost. I don't think I could bare being around live people and not being able to interact with them like I could if I was still alive…I'm sorry…it's for the best." She closed her eyes and tried to keep breathing. I could tell it was getting harder just by the agonizing look of pain on her face. She was struggling to hold on._

_"Ivy!" 'Please don't leave me!'_

_Her eyes snapped open and she looked quizzically at me, "What?"_

_"How are you doing? It doesn't hurt too much does it!" Yoh looked worriedly at her._

_She somehow managed another superficial smile and a lie. "It doesn't hurt at all. Death isn't so bad. I really don't feel any pain at all…the real pain is the pain you feel for the people you're leaving behind. Death isn't really as terrible as people make it out to be…right Hao?" She smirked at me, repeating the words I had spouted to her earlier when she asked me what death was like._

_"Right…death itself isn't so bad. The pain comes from knowing the one you thought you could trust murdered you…God, I'm sorry Ivy…" My will to live was disappearing right along with her._

_"Don't say that. I want you to go on living Hao. I'll never forgive you if you kill yourself." I tried to protest, but she cut me off with more force than I knew she still had in her. "Find another girl to love…no whores though. I want you to be happy. Try to be happy. Promise me that you'll be happy." She waited for my response, but all she got was silence. "SAY IT."_

_"I promise that I'll be happy." My reply was mechanical at best. There was no point in living without her. Then regret overtook me, "If I had my powers I could heal you…I feel so helpless Ivy…I can't save you. I feel like a wimpy human…I'm suppose to be the most powerful Shaman ever, but look at me. I can't even save the woman I love…"_

_She winced again as the life drained from her body. "Goodbye everyone…thank you so much for everything. Anna…goodbye sis. Yoh…I love you. Take care of my sister; make her happy." Her final good-byes. This was it. She looked up at me, saving me for last. "Oh Hao…"_

_"One last kiss?" I tried to rein in my tears, but the ignored my efforts, and kept flowing anyway._

_"One last kiss." She smiled as I kissed her goodbye "I love you, Hao…" Her last words. She died with my name on her lips. She snuggled up against me and closed her eyes. A peaceful smile painted her bright red lips and she died. That smile would haunt my dreams for years upon years to come._

_"Wake up!"_

I tossed and turned in my sleep as I was haunted by visions of her lying dead in my arms. That smile…her blood red lips matched the warm blood spewing from the wound I had inflicted on her. I was covered in a cold sweat, and shivers raced freely up and down my spine.

"Wake up!" Someone was shaking me.

The visions kept coming, refusing to release me from there amorous hold. It seemed nothing could free me from my twisted dream world.

"For god sakes, Hao! Get out of bed and WAKE! UP!" I collapsed on the floor as the annoying voice pushed me out of bed.

My eyes snapped open and I immediately started to feel the pain. The first thing I saw was a pretty girl with shoulder-blade long coffee-colored hair. The room was dark, so I couldn't make out her dark brown eyes. "Judo." I mumbled, sitting up and rubbing my sore head.

"Nice to see you too lover boy." The impish persona of my late wife grinned widely. "I still can't believe you still have that same nightmare almost twenty years afterward. You'd think that you would have gotten over it by now." I batted at her, trying to hit her, but she jumped back just in time to avoid my hand. "Guess not." The ten-year old child pulled an orange out of thin air, and took a seat on an invisible wall.

"What do you want Judo?" I grumbled as I stood and got back in bed. I quickly checked my digital clock on my nightstand. "It's one o'clock in the morning."

"I know. Isn't it a wonderful hour to be up and about?" Her smile sickened me. I glared at her, but didn't say anything. "Would you like an orange?" She smiled. I glared.

"Nope. I want to know what you're doing here this late at night." I pulled the covers over my head and tried to pretend she wasn't there.

She yanked my covers away and got in bed next to me, stealing most of the cover for herself. She used my chest as a pillow and made herself at home. "It's scary in there." She motioned toward the door to Valerie's room.

"What do you mean?" I put an arm around her and gently smoothed her hair.

"Anna and Faust are in there trying to move our soul into a new body. The old body is deteriorating and we're getting really sick. Faust and Anna made the new body and they're doing the operation right now." Judo mumbled to me softly, falling asleep. "But…something's wrong…the new body is rejecting our soul for some reason. I don't know, but it hurts a lot. I had to get out of there, so I came in here where you would protect me."

The meaning of her words didn't settle into my head right away. "How can I protect you? And how are you so sure that I will help?"

"You can protect me because I think you can. There's no real danger; it's only a mental think. I feel safe when I'm with you, so as long as you're with me, I think I'm safe. It's a comfort issue." She paused to glance up at me for a quick second. She looked away and giggled. I raised an eyebrow at her, but didn't say anything. "And I know that you'll help me because you think I'm adorable." She tilted her head upward again and smiled.

For the briefest of seconds I saw Ivy smiling at me. I sat up, forcing Judo up as well since she was resting on my chest.

"What!" The flustered little shaman furrowed her brow at me, upset at having been disturbed.

"Shh. Listen." It was a faint noise, but I swear I heard something.

Judo only managed to stay quiet for a few seconds before she started up her yakking once again. "It sounds like a woman crying…or wailing…or screaming in agonizing pain…" She paused and looked objectively at the door connecting my room to Valerie's. "It sounds like it's coming from there."

I did sound like a woman crying out in pain. "Ivy…" I breathed. I bolted from bed and was at the door in milliseconds.

"Wait!" Judo was faster somehow blocking my way into the other room.

"What!" I didn't appreciate her intervening.

"You can't go in there! Ivy can't know that you know that she's Valerie! Anna and Faust can't know either. Hoshi can know though since she already knows that Valerie is her mom, but if you go in there, you'll see things!" The little shrimp of my wife looked up at me with terror in her eyes. "Horrible things! A body-soul exchange isn't pretty at all, and you won't like it. That's why I left. That and the pain, but it's really awful, Hao. Please don't go?"

"But Ivy…" I started to argue.

"She won't look anything like Ivy, Hao. The body is decomposing, she's just a skeletal frame covered by patches of rotting flesh. It would be worse than watching her die! And the new body doesn't look anything like your wife either. She's got long silvery-blonde hair, and dark blue eyes, and the face structuring is all wrong, and she's really pale. Since the soul isn't in the body yet, it just looks like a dead body. Don't go, you won't like it at all. It's not like you could help or anything." She looked up at me and batted her pretty brown eyes.

"Fine, have it your way…" I returned to the bed and sat on the edge. Judo followed close behind. "What exactly is going on in there anyway? Could you give it to me in steps?"

"Sure!" Judo smiled happily, more than happy to provide me with any info I wanted. "Well, you know how Val has been looking really sick and acting really ill lately? Well, it's because her body is shutting down and she needs a brand new one. Usually the bodies only last a couple days at most, but it's really weird, she's been able to keep using the same one for a couple months now without any problems. I suppose something had to happen and it had to break down sometime, but still….Anyway, what you do when switching the bodies is you have the patient strapped down to one bed, and you strap the new body down for another. You have t' strap 'em down 'cause when you rip the soul from one body and force it into the next it's really painful, and the bodies both wriggle and toss and turn and move around an awful lot. Faust usually does all the operating mostly, but Anna needs to be there to help and supervise and stuff. Hoshi is helping tonight too. She wants to be a doctor; did you know that? I think it's really cool. I really like Hoshi; she's neat."

Judo kept rambling about something and I just nodded, not really devoting my full and undivided attention to her. In truth, I hadn't known that Hoshi wanted to be a doctor. Sure she had mentioned it when she was little a time or two, but I hadn't known that she still wanted a medical profession. 'That just goes to show how little you actually know about your own children.'

"…so then once he's done cutting all that up, Faust reaches in and rips the soul out of the decomposing body. The body turns to dust after the soul is out since it's only a Jiang-si corpse, and then Faust pushes the soul into the new body. I really can't imagine why this body won't accept our soul….it's so weird."

All of the sudden the screaming stopped and the house was silent. I looked toward Judo for an answer. The Tao girl shrugged. With a quick flick of my wrist a small orb of fire showing what was going on in the next room appeared, floating over the bed.

Faust and Hoshi stood over the new body, inspecting it. Anna sat on the opposite side of the bed looking sour-faced down at the body that her sister's soul should have been inhabiting. Valerie herself looked rather downtrodden as she stared at the body lying strapped to the bed.

"So what are we going to do?" Hoshi blinked twice as she studied the faces surrounding her.

No one answered.

Anna shifted her attention from the lifeless lump on the bed to a dark corner of the room where a small red orb of light was floating just off the floorboards. "What do you think Ivy?"

The little ball of light flickered uncertainly at Anna before transforming into the ghostly form of my young wife. "What do I think about what Onee-chan?"

"Pay attention." Anna rolled her eyes, throwing the beaded bracelet from her wrist at her younger sister.

Ivy flinched as the Itako beads went right through her. "Hey!" she whined. The brunette sat down in the corner sulking childishly.

My heart skipped a beat. It had been so long since I had seen her…Sure I had been living with Valerie for several months now, but I hadn't actually seen Ivy in years…since she died.

"I think what Ivy means to say is that she doesn't have a formed opinion on the subject matter." Valerie stepped in for Ivy and replied even more mechanically than I had remembered her being.

"Maybe if we….No." Hoshi muttered, surveying the body.

"What?" Faust looked curiously at my eldest child.

A bunch of medical gibberish came flooding out of my daughter's mouth. "Well, I was thinking that if we made an incision next to the (some word I can only guess is a body part) and go in through the (some technical sounding noun), we could extract the (I'm not sure I could pronounce the word if you paid me), and insert the (?). Then it would just be a matter of performing a (some difficult sounding medical procedure thingy…)." Hoshi paused for a minute and no one spoke. The blonde necromancer stared wide-eyed at the girl in shock. Hoshi looked down and muttered. "It wouldn't work, would it?" She didn't even wait for an answer. "That's what I thought."

"A-actually…" Faust blinked several times and looked at my child in awe. "…that's medical genius. How did you ever think up something like that; you're only seventeen!"

"Sixteen…actually. I read a lot of books…I really want to be a doctor." As if she had just realized the momentum of the German's words, she looked up and smiled giddily at him. "You really think it's genius! Will it work!"

He smiled kindly at the short brunette. "Of course it will work, and you'll make a magnificent doctor one day; wouldn't she Eliza?" The blonde nurse smiled warmly and nodded with a maternal air. Faust turned his attention back to Hoshi after a loving look to his wife. "Would you like to help with the procedure Miss Hoshi?"

"REALLY? That would be… I mean… YES!" The older of my twins was like a child let loose in a toy store. For once she truly seemed happy. She put her hair up and pulled on a set of gloves.

Anna rolled her eyes and instinctively rested her hand on her stomach while watching the surgery.

Valerie seemed uninterested in what was going on with the body, so she walked over to make small talk with her other self. Ivy still sat in the corner twiddling her fingers and playing with strands of hair. Valerie looked down at Ivy with disinterest. "It'll take awhile before they need our soul."

"My soul. Not yours." Ivy glared up at the shallowest facet of herself. "I won't need you around much longer."

"Sorry, how could I have forgotten…yes, your soul…yours and Judo's." The silver-haired chemist didn't seem to mind Ivy's bitter tone at all. "Speaking of, where is she? Shouldn't she be here with the two of us as well?"

The Kyôyama girl scanned the room for any sign of the Tao. Ivy got to her feet and her brow furrowed in deep thought. "That's right…I have no idea where she…went…" Ivy's gaze caught on the door to my room. "…to."

Valerie chanced a glance at Ivy. "Do you want to go retrieve her or should I?"

"I'll go." Ivy gulped and straightened her ghostly clothing as she approached my door.

Back in my room, Judo scrambled off of my bed and sat down on her invisible wall. She pulled out an orange to eat and motioned for me to get rid of the spying device I had made out of one of my fireballs. "Pretend to be asleep!" She hissed quietly to me.

I did as she told, darting to get under the covers just as the door opened and Ivy peaked her head in. "Judo?" Ivy softly cooed.

Judo looked over her shoulder at the door. "Yes?" The mischievous Tao child smiled at her older half.

Ivy motioned for Judo to come back in the room. Judo shook her head and motioned for Ivy to come into my room. Ivy shook her head and repeated her emphatic gesture. Judo gestured back just as over dramatically, and soon forced Ivy into my bedroom. Ivy rolled her eyes and looked down her nose at the ten year-old.

"What?" The elder of the two looked suspiciously at her younger image.

"Nothing." Judo directed an impish grin at Ivy as the Kyôyama took a look around the room.

"Nothing my foot. Why did you want me in here? You're going to wake him." Ivy spoke in hushed tones, clearly fooled by my charade.

"I'm not going to wake him." Judo insisted.

"What are you doing in here in the first place?" Ivy took a seat on the invisible wall.

"Watching." Judo's smile grew larger.

"Watching?" Ivy raised an eyebrow. Her dark eyes looked lovely as ever as far as I could tell opening my eyes just a crack so I could see her.

"Watching him sleep." The younger finished. "He's so cute."

Ivy cast me, what she thought Judo might interpret as an uninterested glance. "I suppose." She tried not to look back at me, but she couldn't help a second glance. The second became a third, and the third became a longing stare.

"You miss him." Judo smirked, secretly making Ivy play into her hand.

"I do." My wife admitted cautiously. "What of it?"

"Nothing…" Judo smirked.

"Nothing?" Ivy checked.

"Maybe it's not nothing." Judo offered.

"I thought so." Ivy smiled smugly.

"You know, you could wake him up right now, and you could tell him, and you two could be happy." Judo was trying to get her to confess.

"No Judo." Ivy's voice was soaked with pain. "It would be against Anna's plan."

"Which plan? What do you know of this supposed plan that your sister has? She hasn't told you a thing, but you still follow her blindly. I'll never understand you. If it were me, I would tell him no matter what Anna said. You love him and you miss him, and you want him back so badly it hurts. You want to get back together with him…" Judo was waiting for Ivy to say something, a certain word or a particular phrase, but it didn't look like Ivy was going to be saying anything at all. "Come on Ivy…why not listen to me this once? You could keep it from Anna so that she would never know and she could have her little plan, but you could still have your man…Ivy?"

Ivy got up off the wall and sat down next to me. The bed didn't even shift as she sat because of her weightlessness. She gently stroked my cheek and stifled tears. "He used to stay up late just staring at me. I hated it. It made me feel so self-conscious. I got so mad at him when he did it…I never understood why he would want to stare at me for hours on end… Judo…I think I understand now." She placed a light kiss on my lips and stood, walking toward the door. "I'm giving up Judo. From this moment on I'm giving up. It's not worth it anymore."

Judo rose as soon as she was out of the room. The girl sat down beside me on the bed. I sat up and we stared at each other and the door for several minutes before actually saying anything. "What did she mean by that?"

Judo cocked her head to the side. "I'm sure I've got no idea…I have no idea what's going on in that head of hers. She has way too many voices in there, and as I've said before, it's scary in there. I wouldn't want to be the main personality…not if I had to go through all that she does." The Tao smiled weakly and kissed both of my cheeks lightly. "Night Hao. Get some rest 'cause tomorrow's bound to be weird…" She winked teasingly at me and disappeared.

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Thanks to: Addi-Lee, yo wuz up, knux33, LisaTheHedgehog, Andrea Nefisto, HAO-Addictive, MaiValentinefan, IvyAsakura13, Touch of the Wind, and Dannie.

PLEASE REVIEW!


	30. Human Again

Mikau: Hello! I'd like to recommend a fic to all you Harry Potter/Shaman King fans! Dumbledore's Grandson by Touch of the Wind. It's genius. (Plus it has Lucifer and Diablo in later, upcoming chapters. Anyway, check it out and review. I think you guys will really like it. So, this chapter was…interesting to write. This chapter is more in the style of I,SR than the previous chapters, and I really had fun with this one.

**_Dedication:_** This one is for my good friend **_AILITA_**. Things aren't as bad as they seem, and it can only get better for you. Hand in there because I really care about you Ai, and so does everyone else. Kal, Jason, Rayvyn, Nina, and everyone won't hate you because, like me, they care! They're your family and friends, and they won't abandon you just because you're having a hard time of it. We'll always be there for you Ai, so don't give up. I hope I don't have to say that I still will be keeping in touch with you. I care about you because we're friends. Right now you need all the friends you have, so don't try to get rid of me. I'm not that easy to dispose of. Love you! .

**_Disclaimer:_** I don't own Shaman King.

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Human Again

The soft taps of bear feet on wooden floor went unnoticed as they entered the loud dinning room. Hana had invited Ivory, Makoto, and Akira over for Sunday lunch, and the boisterous teenagers were rowdy as always, making way too much noise as usual. The whole original gang was there too from Ryu to Chocolove, and the house was packed.

No one noticed a small Japanese/Chinese/American mutt of a woman sliding open the shoji door just enough to slip through. No one saw her as she snuck into the dinning room and blended in with the crowd even if she was still in her pajamas at 12:00 in the afternoon.

She sat next to me and smiled saying, "Mornin'."

I smiled politely back at her but corrected her none-the-less. "You do know that it's noon, don't you? Lunch time?"

She cocked her head to the side in the most endearing way and replied. "I suppose you're right…but you know I never get out of bed before noon anyway, so for me it's still morning."

I had to smile back at her. Something about her made me weak in the knees. "Yeah…I never thought about it that way." I looked away as she grabbed a plate and filled it with toast, celery with peanut butter, some various fruits, and jell-O. I snuck peeks at her out of the corner of my eye. She was acting more like herself now. She was less of the soulless, depressed Valerie I had been living with for a few months, and more like the Ivy I had fallen for years and years ago.

"You wouldn't happen to know why everyone showed up on the front door step this morning would you?" I made an excuse to get her talking to me again even if I knew why they were all gathered. They were there to celebrate my little brother's birthday. It was the next weekend, and there was going to be a huge party. Somehow, to Anna's dismay, everyone had ended up at the Onsen a week early, and had decided to freeload just like the good old days.

Ivy looked positively scandalized. "They're here for next weekend…Hao…it's going to be the 12th soon…May 12th…" I nodded, clearly not showing the kind of recognition she had expected.

"Oh, yes, Yoh's birthday…I still haven't bought him anything…I really should go shopping or something." I smiled and continued talking casually with her. Just the sound of her voice (which sounded more like her real voice and not the one she used when pretending to be Valerie) soothed me. "So how are you feeling? I see you got a new body last night. You look a lot better than you did yesterday."

"Hao…" She pursed her lips and stopped eating. "It's your birthday too…"

I blinked. "Oh." I had forgotten. "I guess it slipped my mind." I had forgotten my own birthday. "I've had so many…it's just not important anymore." My followers would be coming. 'Great. Just what I need a huge party.' I had never really liked parties anyway, and after so many years of being, one just gets tired of counting birthdays. I had already been planning to hand Yoh his present and then skip out on the party, but now that it would be my party too I couldn't very well escape. 'On second thought…' I looked over at Yoh talking excitedly with his friends, making up for lost time and stopping Horo and Ren from getting into as many pointless fights as possible. '…maybe no one will notice that I'm gone if I sneak out the back way…No one would notice if I left now either…No one except—' "Ow!" My thoughts were interrupted as someone backhanded me.

"Pay attention when I'm talking! I asked you the same question five or six times!" Ivy glared angrily at me. She even looked more like herself. I couldn't help but kiss her. As usual she fought it at first caught off guard by the suddenness of it all right after she had smacked me.

The room fell silent as Anna cleared her throat. The ice queen still had power over ever person in the room even if there were over thirty people present. "You two really should get a room. If not, then at least please don't start making out at my table where people are trying to eat." Anna's dry tone held a slight hint of amusement, but any trace of emotion was faint, after all, she had a façade to keep up.

Ivy pulled away blushing and short of breath. "An-na…why…do you always do this to m-me?"

"You do it to yourself. Go get changed into some decent clothes so I can introduce you to everyone." Anna hid a smile at her younger sibling.

Ivy didn't bother masking her grin. "I'd rather stay in my pajamas, thank you. I'll be taking them off soon anyway. Come on Hao." She grabbed my hand and pulled me off into her bedroom to some rowdy cheers of 'Go Hao!' from some of the men present, a few giggles and blushes from the ladies, and the most priceless look on Anna's face.

Ivy burst into peals of giggles as she closed the door behind us. "Did you see her face? Oh. My. GOD. That was so much fun!"

I took a seat on her bed and smiled. 'She's even talking like herself again.' "What the Hell was that, may I ask?"

"Oh. Uh…sorry about that. You see, you were the closest guy except for Ryu, and god knows I would rather be alone in a bedroom with you than him." She blushed lightly, opened up the door to her armoire, and took off her shirt. "Plus I wanted to talk to you…"

"Do you want to—" I started, but she quickly cut me off, turning on me, clutching her shirt to her chest, and giving me a 'I know what you're thinking.' look.

"No Hao, I don't really want to sleep with you." She turned her attention back to getting dressed, grabbing a bra and scowling at me. "Don't look. I'm changing."

"I wasn't going to ask you that." I turned my body away from her, but watched her reflection in the vanity mirror. I smirked as she removed the shirt from blocking my view to put on the bra.

"Yes you were. That's all that's ever on your mind when you watch me take off my clothes through the reflection in that stupid mirror."

The smirk drained from my face. "It's not as much fun if you know I'm watching you." I turned back around and didn't try to hide where my eyes where looking.

"Perverted bastard." She hissed, nailing me in the face with her underwear.

"I love it when you call me that." By the time I could see straight again she had already replaced the underwear she had thrown at me, so I didn't get to see anything. 'Darn…'

"I'll bet you do." She slipped on a pair of black capris and pulled on a red tank top. She walked over to her vanity and opened a few drawers. She took out a ruby heart pendant on a black choker, and applied a thin layer of bright red lipstick to her lips. She didn't draw on the eyeliner 3 though. And her hair was still silvery blonde. And her eyes were dark blue. But she was back. She was mine again. My Ivy.

"You look…" I couldn't think of what to say. How do you describe so much beauty contained in one vessel? "Wow…"

"I know." She smiled seductively at me. "About what you were going to ask me earlier…"

She didn't need to ask. "I was going to say, 'Do you want to go for a walk?' Though I wouldn't be apposed to taking those clothes off of you again."

Ivy rolled her eyes and smiled. "Actually that sounds like fun."

"Uh…what did you say?" I blinked several times, not trusting my ears.

She grabbed my wrist and pulled me back towards the dinning room again. "I said a walk sounds like fun."

"Oh." I tried not to sound too disappointed that she hadn't meant the other choice of activities.

"We can sneak off after breakfast, but first Anna has to introduce Valerie to everybody." She winked back over her shoulder at me. We were about to enter the dinning room when she looked back over her shoulder at me like she had just remembered something. "Hey, can you turn your shirt inside out?"

I blinked at her weird request, but did as she asked. She pulled on the strap of her shirt until her bra showed, and quickly messed up her hair. "Got to make it look authentic." She explained before biting up and down my neck just hard enough to leave a few marks and running her fingers through my hair, sufficiently messing it up. She smudged her lipstick and made sure to leave some of it on my neck. I gave her a few quick hickeys in places she could easily hide, and we were ready to go.

I secured my arm possessively around her waist, my hand resting on her upper thigh, and she rested her head on my shoulder, hanging her arms around my neck, one palm flat against my chest.

Ren rolled his eyes looking furious, Horo looked jealous, Tamao smacked Horo for looking jealous, Yoh rolled his eyes and smiled lazily. Ryu looked wistfully at Ivy, and Jun just smiled. Hana, Ivory, and Makoto didn't seem to notice our entrance since they were too busy trying to break up a catfight between Thorn and Akira. Hoshi smiled fondly at the two of us, knowing full well of our trick; the ginger colored tabby cat sitting on my oldest daughter's lap seemed to smile as well.

Anna glared icily. "You two really are a bunch of animals." She huffed.

I swear I heard Horo whisper to Ren, "Ivy hasn't changed much at all over the years, has she? Still the same lovable vixen she always was…I should have proposed to her when I had the chance back during the Shaman Tournament. God she's hott…"

Ren threatened Horo Horo with his Kwan Dao. "You are aware that she's my sweet, innocent, baby sister…aren't you? I won't have you thinking dirty thoughts about her. It's bad enough, that husband of hers…" Ren visibly shuddered.

I made sure to smile suggestively at Ren as Ivy pulled me past him on our way back to our seats.

Anna glared unpleasantly and introduced Ivy to the group. "Everyone, this is my cousin, Valerie Kyôyama. She's been staying here while her husband and her are living apart." Anna then directed a comment toward Ivy and myself. "Val, Hao, do us all a favor and straighten your clothing. Just because you act like animals, doesn't mean you have to look like them."

Ivy smiled evilly and opened her mouth, but Anna cut her off before she could say anything. "Can I talk to you in private Valerie?" Ivy nodded and reluctantly left my side to speak in whispers with her sister in a different room.

The noise level in the room rose as soon as Anna stepped out of the room. I smoothed my disheveled hair and turn my shirt the right way as Ryu looked on jealously.

"You know you're very lucky to have that effect on women. Not everyone is so lucky." The old gang-leader smiled, trying not to look too jealous. "Valerie seems like a wild one though. Just like your first wife…you seem to attract that kind of woman."

"Yeah, it's a gift and a curse. I miss Ivy though…" I tried to make polite conversation, but I had never liked Ryu, and probably never will. "Valerie is okay; it's getting better, but I'd rather have the real thing…"

Ryu was about to say something else when an argument that had been relatively contained up until that point broke out in astronomic amounts of chaos.

"I dare you to say that again!" Thorn bolted straight up out of her seat and glared down at Akira.

Akira ignored the furious Allure shaman looming over him.

"What's the matter Rara-chan? Too scared to say it to my face?" My daughter's condescending, devilish tone was one unfamiliar to my ears. I had never known she could be so vindictive; I was again reminded how little I truly knew about my own children. "Come on! I dare you to say it!"

Akira's face was getting redder by the second. Clearly whatever he had said, he didn't want to repeat while the whole crowd of people was listening to him. "Can't you just let it go Asakura?" His voice barely exceeded a whisper.

"NO. I canNOT let it go! And what have we talked about over and over again these past months about my NAME!" I had never seen Thorn so angry before…except for maybe at the hospital when Akira had made her insanely angry. That Tao boy seemed to wake some kind of fiery demon spirit within my daughter.

Akira seemed to shrink under Thorn's gaze. "Fine. Whatever. Just get over it and shut up Rose."

"THORN!" If Akira didn't wise up and shut his mouth soon, he might not have any teeth left when Thorn got done with him.

"Oh, like I care!" Akira rose to his feet, towering several inches over my relatively short daughter. "And you should just be quiet and accept it! You ARE prude! You wouldn't let a guy touch you with a five foot stick!" He shoved her.

Thorn was so startled by the sudden physical contact that she nearly tripped backwards with his small amount of force. "I…I'm NOT!" She argued weakly, shoving him back.

"Okay maybe you're not. After all, you did sleep with your cousin." Akira smiled evilly, sneering as Thorn's cheeks reddened from either anger or embarrassment.

Yes I had known that Hana and Thorn were overly fond of each other, and I knew the previous day when Hana had asked me about incest that he had meant between Thorn and himself, but I didn't think they had actually _done _anything. Yoh and I blinked in unison, registering the meaning behind Akira's words. "Thorn/Hana?" We muttered at the same time, looking shocked at our children.

"I did no such thing!" Thorn ignored the interruption.

"Akira, don't you think this is taking it a bit too far?" Hana stood in-between the feuding pair and glared at his friend for trotting on personal ground.

I snuck a quick look at Ivory; she looked completely shattered. "Hana-koi? It's not true is it?" The Usui girl held Makoto tightly to her chest like a stuffed animal.

The Oyamada squirmed, trying to get free, but having little success. "Hana-kun wouldn't. Not with his own cousin."

"Nothing happened." Hana took a step back from Akira and flashed a quick grin to his gang, trying to reassure them.

I found myself set at ease by my nephew's words. If he said that nothing happened, then nothing happened. My pure, innocent, baby girl was still pure and innocent.

Akira glared harder, his scowl even more deeply etched in his face. "Oh sure Hana, you'll say that now, but last night when you called you told me all the disgusting, kinky things you did with your little whore." The cat on Hoshi's lap seemed to smile evilly. All hell broke loose.

"You lying bastard!" Thorn's knuckles cracked as they made contact with Akira's face. Blood from Akira's nose sprayed as he tumbled over into a pummeled heap on the floor.

"You broke my nose!" Akira screeched.

Thorn stood looking mortified at what she had done. Her hands covered her mouth and she stared wide-eyed at the blood dribbling down the Tao's face. "I…I didn't mean to…you…I mean…" No one moved. Pilika wanted to rush to her son's side, but Ren held her back, whispering something in his wife's ear. The room was dead silent except for Thorn's nonsense ramblings. It was as if we were all under a spell cast by our shock at what had just happened.

Akira got to his feet and glared down his broken nose at Thorn. "Why you little…urgh! You and your sister both! You're both a bunch of bloody harlots!"

Hoshi looked like she wanted to punch him, but she never got the chance. The instant Akira had insulted Hoshi, the orange tabby cat rushed into battle mode, determined not to let Akira get away with impugning my elder daughter's honor. Everyone stared as the small cat bit and scratched at Akira, doing whatever harm it saw fit. The tabby latched on to Akira's ankle and bit hard.

Akira howled in pain, shaking his leg, trying to dislodge the cat. Finally in a hasty attempt to rid himself of the pest, Akira grabbed a plate and nailed the poor cat over the head. Glass went everywhere as the plate broke and the lifeless form of the cat slammed into the wall; Lucifer returned to his human form just as his body hit the ground.

Hoshi screamed bloody murder as she pounced upon Akira, beating him with fists, teeth, nails, and whatever else she could think of. Though she wasn't really thinking, being in a maddening rage and all. Shouts and insults were exchanged, but I couldn't make any sense at all of anything that was said. Somehow or another Hoshi ended up lying unconscious on the table. I was still too shocked to do anything, as was anyone else in the room.

Thorn charged at Akira, trying to rip his heart out through his throat. That was when he pulled the knife on her and she unsheathed her gun. Ivory rushed to tend to my unconscious daughter, and Hana tried to break up the dangerous fight going on between his friend and his cousin. Hana stumbled backward, getting cut in the process of trying to restrain Akira. Sometime during the fight Akira slashed Thorn across the stomach. Not enough to kill her, but enough to cause a good deal of bleeding. The sharp pain jolted her system, causing her to squeeze her fists together, causing her to pull the trigger.

The gunshot sounded, Akira fell unconscious to the floor shot in the thigh, and everyone scrambled to help. Ivy and Anna, looking terrified, dashed back into the room.

Faust managed to patch everyone up pretty well. Hana's wound was healing quite nicely, and he hadn't even lost consciousness. Thorn was starting to come around; the cut hadn't been very deep, and it looked worse than it actually was. Hoshi had been knocked unconscious when Akira had thrown her up against the dinning room table, and had managed to escape the fight with a few minor scratches and bruises, and a mild bump on her head. Faust didn't let her go back to sleep once she woke up in case she suffered from a concussion, but he did let her lie down and rest. Akira fainted numerous times and squealed like a girl when Faust tried to remove the rubber bullet from his thigh.

They all seemed to be fine. The only one that didn't seem to be making a recovery was Lucifer. He didn't look well at all. All the color had drained from his face, and his breathing was shallow. His skull was cracked, and fractured along with several other bones. He had lost a lot of blood, and Faust didn't know how to treat him, him being who he was. Not human. Both the doctor and his wife had no idea what to do for the poor devil. Hoshi might have been able to help a little if she were completely conscious, but she wasn't, so all we could do was wait and try to stop the bleeding.

Ivy never left his side. The entire time she was constantly nursing him. I felt my heart pang with jealousy. "How's he doing?" I feigned worry.

Ivy didn't even look up at me and continued to fuss over Lucifer. "I don't know. He's still breathing…and the bleeding is stopping…his heart is beating and his pulse is steady…but his breathing is slow and labored, and he did lose a lot of blood, and the heart is slow, as is the pulse. I really don't know what's going to happen." She rubbed his cheek affectionately, cleaning off some of the blood.

"Humph." I tried not to acknowledge her fondling him. "He's the devil. He'll be fine."

Ivy glared at me. She looked like she wanted to slap me or something. "Sure, show some compassion Hao."

"What? He's not human! It's not like he's really alive or anything. That body of his is just a shell. He can get a new one. Who cares about him?" I half-growled in spite for the lump of flesh lying on the bed that my wife was wasting her time on.

"You're an insensitive bastard, you know that?" She sucker punched me and stormed off.

She didn't hit me hard, but the shock and sting of her words and actions hurt as much as an actual punch from her. I stared at the door she had exited through. "What did _I_ do?"

"Think about it." A nastily familiar voice chided me. I looked down to see Lucifer looking up at me with one eye open. He looked to be in a great deal of pain. "You said not to worry about me because my body was a replaceable shell. She automatically thought about her own body. You really have to think about what you say before you say it Hao."

"What do you me—damn." I glared down at Lucifer only to find that he was unconscious again. Or maybe he had never been conscious in the first place? Was my mind playing tricks on me? There was no time to think about it. I raced after Ivy with a quick 'thanks for standing up for Hoshi' directed back at Lucifer's comatose body.

I found her crying her eyes out in the back yard under the Sakura trees. It had been raining all day the day before, but somehow the ground upon which she sat was neither damp, nor muddy.

"I—Val…" I searched for the words to apologize with. A normal 'I'm sorry' or 'Gomen nasai' wouldn't do.

"Don't call me that." She seethed through tears.

"I'm sorry. I don't expect you to forgive me, but…I just want to say that I'm sorry." I tried to get closer to her, but a small bolt of electricity shocked me, forcing me back.

"Don't apologize; you don't mean it. Now leave me alone." She got up and tried to walk away.

I grabbed her by the shoulders and spun her around to face me. "Don't tell me what I mean and what I don't mean! I'm sorry, okay! You're so sensitive about the stupidest things! I don't know how I can stand you! You're so volatile; you go flying off the handle every other day! You're so picky, and…and…snippy!"

"I am NOT!" Her anger was enough to rival Thorn's in the dining room not too long ago. She pushed me away, and hit me repeatedly, landing soft blows, not intended to hurt. "Is that what you really think of me! Then I don't know how you can stand me either! I'm just a shell! My body's not good enough for you because it's not really real! Well if this body isn't good enough for you, then why do you want it so badly! Why are you here Hao? Is this some kind of booty call? If it is don't you think you have enough women callers to satisfy those needs? What, did you make a bet with one of your friends that you could get me in bed with you? What do you want from me? Never mind, I know exactly what you want! It's the same thing you've wanted from the very beginning! You know what? Fine. I give. Take me. Take me, and then get out. I don't ever want to see you again. There's an empty bedroom right around the corner, and I'll give you fifteen minutes to do whatever you want, just after that leave me alone forever. I'm so sick of you." She was about to turn away, but I stopped her.

"You're beautiful when you're angry."

She stopped in mid-step. "Shut up Asakura. I won't be wooed by your empty words."

"I don't have to woo you. You've already been wooed." My plan was a long shot, but it just might work.

"What do you mean? By you? I don't think so." She chuckled dryly and an arid smile graced her lips as she looked over one shoulder at me.

"Really? You might not know it, but you really are dying to sleep with me." A smug smile tugged at my mouth.

"Humph. Right. Are you coming or not?" She took an unsure step towards the bedroom.

"Why do you think you're so anxious to get me in there with you? You want me." I sounded so sure of myself, but in truth I was really nervous. This plan could so easily blow up in my face.

"I want you to leave me alone." She glared, turning to face me again.

"Maybe, but before I leave you for good, you want me to make you mine. You want to be one of my consorts. You want me just as badly as I want you." I let my trademark smirk crawl slowly onto my lips.

"You admit that you want me then!" She tried to use my words against me, but all she was doing was playing into my hand.

"Oh, definitely. It's a new body as of last night isn't it? So technically you're a virgin again. I'd love to take that away from you." A perverted grin was plastered on my face as I looked her over candidly.

She looked like she was struggling within. She didn't know whether she should slap me or kick my in the balls. She did neither. "You're such a perverted bastard."

"So you've told me. Say it again. It only makes me want you more because I know it's your way of trying to resist me." I made an advance on her, placing my hand on her hip. She was too caught up in my words and didn't realize I was getting closer. "No woman can resist me. You want me, but you're too stuck up to admit that you want me." I positioned my other arm around her, pulling her close. Her eyes got that enticed, glazed look as she felt the warmth of my breath getting closer and closer to her neck. "So I'll tell you what I'll do. I'm going to leave and you'll never see me again. Ever. Just like you wanted, but I'm not going to sleep with you before I go. If you want me, then you'll have to come after me on your own. What do you say?"

She pulled away and slapped me. "Go to Hell. See if I care." She walked off, and the sky started to darken with threats of heavy rain.

She had been so happy that morning and the sun had been shining and everything. She had even been acting more like herself. The _real_ Ivy. And then everything had gone sour. "I'm already in Hell." I called after her. Not very loud, but loud enough for her to hear.

"So am I." She called back.

"Wanna get a room?" I joked, trying desperately to quell her anger.

She laughed dryly. "I thought you were leaving."

"Damn Ivy, why are you so difficult?" I walked slowly after her.

"What?" She turned again towards me and blinked.

"What?" I replied, lazily falling into step beside her.

"You called me Ivy…" She barely whispered, not looking at me. She didn't seem so angry anymore.

"Did I? Sorry. I guess you'd rather be called Valerie?" I answered somberly. I didn't have much energy left for big showy cover-ups for my slip of tongue.

"Actually, no. I like the name Ivy a whole lot better than Valerie." Her reply startled me. I hadn't been expecting that… She continued. "I'm sorry for blowing up at you. I really don't think that you're a perverted bastard or a sex-driven maniac…but you are a pervert. A sweet pervert, who's kind of cute."

"It's okay. I kind of like your little pet name for me. And I knew you didn't mean to say all that crap. I'm sorry if I went a little too far teasing you. I just want you to be happy, and you were for a while this morning, but then you got all touchy after I slipped up and insulted Lucifer's stupid shell of a body. I didn't mean anything about you. I was just jealous that you were fussing over him, is all." I smiled sheepishly and waited for her to either forgive me or shoot me.

"Well…next time you're jealous just say so. You don't have to act like a chauvinistic pig." She placed a quick kiss on my cheek. "I hate when you tell me that I want you. I know what I want, and I don't have to be told that I want you."

"But you _do_ want me." I picked up her drift.

"Did I say that?" She smiled seductively.

"Not out right, but you alluded to it." I waited for her to invite me back to her bedroom.

I didn't get an invitation. "I can't. I just got this body, and it was pretty hard to come by. I don't want to lose it after just a few hours. Looks like you might just have to wait."

"How long?" I couldn't resist asking.

"One and a half years?" She smiled furtively.

"Okay, now I know you're messing with me." I pouted.

"I'm giving up on my research."

My pouty smile dropped and I had the worst feeling in the pit of my stomach. "W-what?" My question was more of a breathy whisper than actual words.

She smiled peacefully. "This is the last body that I'm going to inhabit. After this one fizzles out and becomes useless I'm going to Heaven. I don't belong here anymore, and it's time that I left the world of the living."

Her smile was killing me. "You're leaving?" I swallowed hard.

"Mmhmm." She nodded. "I don't know how long this body will last, but it's probably only a matter of months. Then I'll be gone." She seemed happier than she had in the months I had been living with her when she was talking about leaving her life behind and finally admitting death.

"You seem happier now that you've given up." I tried to choke back my real feelings on the matter. 'Please don't leave me again Ivy…'

She lay down on the ground and looked giddily up at the clouds. "I am. Now that I don't have to keep working hours on end on that stupid perfect body for myself I can finally enjoy what I have left of my life. I finally feel…I don't know…at peace with death. I can accept it now. I haven't felt this good in…17 years. I feel like me…like I'm actually…human again." Her joyful smile was strangling my heart. I sat down next to her gazing longingly at the woman I was about to lose yet again.

"You're really happy about this?" I tried to smile for her sake.

"Yeah. I am." She looked up at me and her smile faded. "But you're not…" She sat up and looked into my eyes. "Hao…what's the matter?"

"I'll never see you again once you leave." I muttered softly, looking at her and silently mourning my loss.

"Oh…I suppose I had forgotten that…" Her spirits seemed dampened.

"I'll miss you, but don't let me hold you back if this will make you happy." I tried to smile, but the results were pretty pathetic.

"I didn't know you cared about me enough to miss me…" She inched closer.

"Of course I care. Do I seem like I don't care about you?" I leaned in to close the distance even more.

"Actually I don't really know…I've been too lost in my depression to notice." She gulped slightly, observing our close proximity.

I hesitated, eager to make a move on her, but knowing she might have something to say even if she had just been rambling up until that point. We both had been rambling, trying to postpone the evident make-out session, not wanting to be the one to initiate it in case the other thought that the one had been too forward in his or her actions. "Well, you're not depressed now, and I like it when you're happy. You're more yourself when you're happy."

"You mean I'm more like Ivy when I'm happy." She smiled again, her happiness returning.

"Yeah, and it's sexy." I could no longer suppress the smirk I had been fighting off.

"You're sexy." And she pounced on me. She took advantage of my momentary shock and she pounced on me. Smothering me with heated kisses and waking feelings and emotions in me that had been slumbering since that last time we were together like that. The last time she really was Ivy and not some cheap imitation. It was amazing. I could have died happy right then and there, but all perfect moments have to come to an end, and at Funbari Onsen, most perfect moments are ruin by the one and only Anna Asakura-Kyôyama.

Anna opened a window and yelled at the two of us. "Stop making love on my lawn and get a room! You two are impossible." The window slammed shut, not leaving any room for arguments.

Ivy got to her feet and blushed. "I should go…I want to see if Thorn is all right."

"I'll go with you. She's my daughter too." I followed her back into the house.

A few seconds later she caught my slip. "Wait. 'Too'?"

"Well…one day. When we're married." I smiled slyly and ascended the stairs.

"M-ma-rri…So I guess you don't plan on leaving anytime soon?" I could practically hear her heart quicken (theoretically speaking).

"When did I say I was leaving? You don't really want me to leave, and I never had any intension of going anywhere. Unless you want to get an apartment with me?" I looked back over my shoulder, down the stairs at her.

She blushed a redder shade of ruby, matching her lipstick. "I…Uh…Well, you're sure having fun shamelessly flirting with me today."

"I'm not just flirting; I'm planning. If I'm ever going to get past first or second base with you, I'm going to have to get you alone where Anna can't interrupt us. I think getting our own place is a great idea." I loved teasing her.

"You are just too much sometimes Asakura." She rolled her eyes at me to cover her blushing.

"I know, but that's why you love me." I suppressed a smirk.

"Do the world a favor and suppress your ego." She pushed past me on the stairs, elbowing me playfully on the way up.

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Mikau: Well, I think I'm going to try something new next chapter. I don't know how it's going to go, but either next chapter or the one after that I'm going to try something. It should prove to be interesting…and maybe a little insightful? I don't know, but we'll see what happens.

Thanks to everyone who reviewed. It is so late, and I just got back from being away all day at the Sheldon concert hall. I had my Orchestra and Choir concert today and I am just too tired to reply to any reviews. I'm really sorry. If anyone had any questions or anything that you really wanted to say, mention it in your next review or email me. I'm really sorry, but I'm exhausted, and try outs for Into the Woods are tomorrow and I'm really stressed because exams are next week, and I have to do so many more projects and reports. Sorry, now I'm just rambling. Night everyone. Wish me luck tomorrow!

PLEASE REVIEW!


	31. Dicey Dealings With A Demon

Mikau: Hey everyone! Okay, so I didn't do what I thought I was going to do with this chapter. I'm going to try something new next chapter for sure. It's going to be in a new POV, and I think it'll be insightful…or something along those lines….Anyway, here's the new chapter. It's not as long as some of the others, but I like this chapter.

**_Disclaimer:_** I don't own Shaman King.

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Dicey Dealings With A Demon

My head was positively throbbing when I woke up. Mrs. Faust was looming over me smiling as she saw me coming around. "M…my sister?" I barely got out my mumbled concern for Thorn.

Mrs. Faust pointed over to where her husband was treating my little sister. Thorn appeared to be at least half-awake, but she was obviously disoriented. It looked like she would be fine.

Eliza lay a cold rag on my forehead and went to go get Dr. Faust. He looked down at me and smiled warmly. "And how are we feeling Miss Star?"

"Headache. Some minor bumps and bruises. Other than a general feeling of discomfort and unwellness I should be okay. How's Thorn?" I wanted to hear it from him that she was okay.

"She woke up before you did. A few cuts and bumps, but she's doing fine. No worries. I have to finish getting a bullet out of Akira's leg, so sit tight and try and get some rest. No sleep though. Don't want you suffering from a concussion." He turned to leave but I stopped him in mid-step when I remembered something.

"What about Lucifer?"

He looked down at me as if considering what sort of lie to tell to comfort me.

"Is he…?" I swallowed hard, not quite sure why I cared.

"You're mother is tending to him, but none of us are quite sure what to do…he's not like a shaman or even a human. He's missing organs and his vein-system is…much more complex than anything living that I've seen before. His head injuries are extensive, and I…I can't do anything for him…I'm sorry." He tried his best to smile sympathetically at me, but it didn't help. "He's over there if you feel well enough to walk. You can use your own judgment." He walked off to treat Akira, leaving me to my own devices.

Once Faust was gone, I managed to sit up and take a look around the makeshift infirmary. Akira was screaming in pain as the Fausts removed a rubber bullet from his thigh. Thorn was resting, making a nice recovery, and my parents seemed to be having a major fight about something or another by Lucifer's bed. Ivy stormed out of the room followed by Hao a few seconds later.

Hana, who had his arm bandaged where Akira had slashed him, came over and sat by my bed. "So…how are you?"

"Fine. Don't you want to check up on Thorn?" I looked at him out of the corner of my eye. I looked down at my hands as I played nervously with the trim on my blanket.

"No. Not really. It's kind of awkward, you know? The whole incest thing and all…I'm getting over it though. I'll be able to talk to her without blushing by Tuesday at the latest." He smiled bashfully, trying to make polite conversation.

"How are you?" I replied mechanically. "I mean are you okay?"

"Oh? Oh. I'm fine. I…I'm…never mind." He had wanted to say something. I quickly scanned his mind.

"I meant about the plan? How do you feel about the plan? Are you okay with it?" It was hard for me to be compassionate or sensitive, but I tried for Hana's benefit.

"Oh…well…I'm okay with it. Thanks, but it…Hosh, it doesn't seem to be working. Was this blood bath part of your plan?" He looked away, and I cast my gaze even further down, taking a great interest in the stitches in the quilt.

I hated not having control of the situation. I hated when my plans didn't work. It was almost insufferable. I was particularly embarrassed at not being behind ever twist in the plotline. "No. It wasn't in the plan. We'll have to make some minor adjustments, is all. It'll be fine." My voice was more confident than I actually felt.

"Anything I can do?" My cousin asked like a good henchman.

"No. Not yet. I'll inform you of the changes later. The success of the plan all comes down to everyone involved not knowing every single part of the plan." I let the quilt slip out of my fingers as I lay back down on the bed.

"Sure. You _are_ the mastermind after all." He smiled at me, but I'm not sure if it was to reassure me or himself.

I nodded and returned the smile. "Actually…Hana, help me up." He did as he was told, helping me lift myself from the bed and making sure I could balance on my own. I almost fell over, but I caught myself, grabbing on to his shoulders. His hand flew to my waist and we both smiled uneasily at our position.

"Uh…you okay?" He chuckled nervously.

"Um…yeah. Thanks." I let go of him and walked slowly over to Lucifer's bedside. I had an idea. I sat down carefully next to him on the bed and gently rubbed his cheek. His eyes flickered open and he stared weakly up at me. His eyes really didn't register that it was me there beside him.

He shut his eyes and nuzzled my hand fondly. "Hey." His voice was strained, and I felt bad that he had gotten hurt defending me.

"Thank you." I mumbled, not too keen on getting familiar enough with him to be greeted with 'Hey.' He _was_ the devil and everything.

Lucy opened his eyes and looked glassily up at me with a thin smile. "It was nothing. I couldn't let him say those awful lies about you."

"I was just thanking you; you should accept my thanks and let that be the end of it. You needn't make it into anything more than it was. You're no great hero, and I'm not here to give you an award." My voice sounded harsh even to my ears, but I refused to let myself get on any sort of friendly terms with the demon.

"O-kay…don't you think you're being a bit snippy?" He closed one eye and looked me over, especially my face, carefully.

Despite my firm resolve not to get involved, I couldn't help but agree with him. "Actually, yeah. Thank you for sticking up for me. You really shouldn't have. And why were you in that cat form!"

He blushed but tried to cover it with an amused smile. "Actually I was here as that cat this morning to spy on your sister. It's your own fault that you have a weakness for cats. You shouldn't go around picking up and adopting strays."

I blushed when I realized he was right. I had found a small tabby cat outside on the front porch that morning and had brought him into the house myself. "What do you want with my sister?" My protective instincts for my younger twin kicked in and I looked him over suspiciously. I did not trust any man with my baby sister.

"Nothing. I like 'er is all." Both of his eyes shut and he smirked smugly. "Or maybe I have a hidden agenda."

"You're bluffing." I smiled in a superior manner.

He quickly opened his eyes and looked up curiously at me. "And how would _you_ know that?" He glared defensively.

"I can read your mind. I thought you being the all-knowing Lucifer would know that."

He nodded grudgingly and returned to resting. "Fine. Then you know I was spying on her because I like her. What did you want to talk to me about?"

I nodded and got down to business. "I know that God isn't allowed to mess with free will, but what about you?"

He 'humped' indignantly at me. "I'd like to think that I'm good enough at my job where I could mess with a little free will."

"Good. Then I need you to do a little job for me." I paused, waiting for him to ask for something in return for my favor.

"You and I both know I'm not going to do this for free. I'm the devil. I don't give freebees." He sat up in bed, clearly regaining more and more of his strength by the second.

"I'm not selling you my soul, doing you any sexual favors, or anything of the like." I knew he would try to make a deal with me, and I quickly set up the terms, closing off all manner of loopholes.

"Fine. You really are no fun Hosh." He rolled his eyes playfully at me acting upset.

"Don't call me that." I chided.

"Right. Hoshi. Sorry." I swear he rolled his eyes at me again. "All right, you owe me one if I do this favor for you. Agreed?"

I was hesitant. I hadn't thought that he would agree to help a silly teenage girl so easily. "Agreed." I bit my bottom lip and chewed nervously on the inside of my cheek. 'What did I just agree to?'

"So what's the favor?" He raised an eyebrow and smiled.

I took out a crumbled sheet of paper from my back pocket and handed it to him. He looked it over and looked at me suspiciously. "Tomorrow are the auditions for Grease the musical this year at Shinra High. I don't care how you do it, just make sure that _these_ people are cast for _those _parts."

"Don't you think you're taking a huge risk here? Making a deal with the devil often blows up in your face. I'm dangerous you know; I could turn on you at any time."

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, yeah. I know. You're like a tiger consenting to be led around on a leash by a little girl. But you wouldn't dare go back on your word. We have a deal." 'I'm trusting you Lucifer.'

"We have a verbal deal. You've yet to seal it." I could have slapped him. Who was he to speak to me in such a taunting way?

"What do I have to do?" I replied, growing tired of his games.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" He was toying with me.

"Yes! Now what do I have to do?" I was so close to strangling him. Somehow I just didn't have any patience when it came to Lucifer.

"Come closer." I leaned in toward him. "Closer." I reluctantly got within a few inches of him.

"What?" I glared at his annoying habit of taking his sweet time.

"This is gonna sting." In one fluid motion he pulled me almost on top of him, pressing our lips together in a kiss, and biting into my bottom lip, drawing blood.

I jerked back in a mix of shock and pain. I wanted to scream, but when I opened my mouth nothing came out but a pathetic sharp intake of breath. 'WhAt ThE hElL?'

Lucifer smiled evilly, licking my blood from his lips. He got out of bed, apparently completely healed, and ran his tongue over the cut he had made in my bottom lip. I stood stiff as a board and let him. I was too shocked to resist. 'Why did I agree to this?'

When he was done I was surprised to find that my lip wound had completely healed, leaving a small scar. "There. Now we have a deal. Sealed with blood."

I finally regained my cool and managed to form words. "Was that completely necessary?"

He smiled fondly at me. "Not really. I could have slit your wrist to get the blood—actually, come to think of it, I could have gotten the blood from anywhere really—but I really wanted to kiss you."

I turned away blushing. I mentally cursed the blood rushing to my cheeks. 'Since when do _I_ blush!' "Wh-whatever. Just make sure you get the job done. Now get out."

The demon shrugged indifferently. "Whatever you say witchy. I'll make sure your little show is cast properly, but when the time comes, don't forget your end of the deal."

"Right, right. Your favor. I won't forget." 'Not after what you put me through getting my blood…' I shuddered as cold chills ran up my spine remembering his lips on mine. "And don't call me 'witchy'."

"You really do disappoint me though Hosh. I would have thought that you'd be more careful than most. What _were_ you thinking? Making a deal with the devil and not bothering to close off the loopholes? That's not like the cunning Hoshi Asakura I know."

I turned on him. "What loopholes? I said no selling you my soul, doing you any sexual favors, or anything like that or of that nature." My heart skipped a beat. I had been careful, hadn't I? He had to be bluffing.

"True. You said that. You did rather well actually. Better than most. You protected yourself pretty well but you didn't think of everything." The smile on his face scared me. 'What did I forget!'

"You're lying!" His torture tactics quickly reduced me to a scared child having a tantrum.

"Am I?" I swear I was about ready to cry.

"You are! You can't do anything to me!" My eyes went tunnel vision and I felt faint.

"No. I can't do anything to you. You're completely protected from me." I let out the breath I had been holding in a soft sigh of relief. "It's more a matter of 'what can I make you do to someone else?'" The relief I had felt only moments before hand was washed away in a flood of fear. "You're completely safe…until the police lock you up for murdering your precious little sister in cold blood."

His malicious smile was the last thing I saw before I blacked out.

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Mikau: Yeah…So, I know what you're thinking: 'Lucifer is evil.' Next chapter should prove to be interesting. I tried out for Into the Woods yesterday. I was the only Sophomore, and the rest were all Juniors and Seniors. Well, there was one Freshman. The posted the callbacks list today and I didn't make it. I knew from the start that I wouldn't, so it's okay. I'm not cast for a major part, but when they post the final cast listing I may get a small part with no real dialogue or singing. If not I'm doing crew work and I always have me other play that I'm in. A lot of my Junior and Senior friends tried out. They are all so good! They have a lot more experience than me, so I figured that they would be the ones cast. I'm really excited for working on crew though, it'll be sooooo much fun!

Thanks To: yo wuz up, Touch of the Wind, Andrea Nefisto, MaiValentinefan, GothicShamaness13, and Dannie.

To MaiValentinefan: Hello! Yes, I'm still planning on the Façade fic, but I'm still playing with it. I've got the end down and a lot of scenes planned, but I don't know how much back info I'm going to be able to stuff into it since it's a rather complex storyline, with a lot of it taking place in the past. It will probably be my last fan fiction project that I work on before I leave and resume work on my novel writing. It's sure to be great when it's done. Thank you for showing such a great interest in it! Even I need a little confidence boost every now and again.

To GothicShamaness13: -bops you lightly on the head- Yeah, yeah 'bare feet' instead of 'bear feet'. I realized that when I was looking over the chapter again after I had submitted it. -glares- We can't all be perfect 100 of the time. You wanna write this yourself? LOL! Sorry for the dramatics; I'm just teasing. Though I better not do that because you can't hear me speaking and you might think I was serious and then you might be upset at me…Oh dear. I hope you're not…Ahem…anyway, if you want you should be in the musicals. There soooo much fun, but they're really time consuming. Only do it if you have the time and love of the theatre. It's worth it. Though I don't know about stage fright…how bad of a case do you have? You may want to consider working on crew if you have a huge major case…Good luck whatever you decide though.

Mikau: Hmm…not many reviews this time. Oh well! Keep on truckin'! I'm sure you guys are really busy and will get to reading my updates sometime or another. See you all when you have a spare moment!

PLEASE REVIEW!


	32. A New Perspective

Mikau: This chapter is ridiculously long. I loved writing it. It was sooooo much fun, but now I'm exhausted. I said I would be doing something new, so this chapter is written in Lucifer's POV. Yea! I love my Lucy. I also love that show "I Love Lucy"! What a great show…anyway…on with the chapter.

**_Disclaimer:_** I don't own Shaman King.

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A New Perspective

I felt horrible. The seemingly unshakable girl in front of me crumbled with my words. Her skin paled and her dainty eyelids fluttered shut. Her limp body slowly fell into my arms, as if she was made of water. Her head lightly rested on my shoulder and my arms instinctively went to support her. Her breathing was labored and her heartbeat was quick. I could feel her breath on my neck and it caused shivers of delight to run up and down my spine. I could feel her heart beating rapidly through the thin layers of clothing separating our bodies. She fit well in my arms.

"Shhh…" I smoothed her hair and held her close to me. She really was the perfect size two or three inches shorter than me. Her body seemed to mold into mine perfectly. She smelled so good; like a mix of burnt palm trees and coconut. She was soft to touch and her crimson hair wisped gently in the drafty wind that the cracked windowpane up in the attic let in.

'She really is nothing like her mother.' I thought peacefully to myself, running a few brave fingers through her hair, scared that she might wake up and kill me for touching her. 'Nothing at all like Ivy, but she still has the same alluring aura about her…' I inhaled her scent deeply. 'Smells like…angel…it's been a while since I've seen one of those…'

Her heartbeat was still racing rampant, which I knew could be problematic for most mortals, so I tried my best to soothe her, stroking her hair and shushing her lightly. Her breathing became softer and less labored. Her heart regained a steady beat.

I smiled at her frail form. She pretended to be so tough, and yet, she really was more fragile than most. At that moment I caught myself and realized what I was doing. I could almost hear my elder brother taunting me, haunting me in the back of my mind, saying 'Consorting with mortals again Lucy? Tsk. Tsk. Tsk.' Diablo. The voice in my head that haunted my every waking moment and most of my sleeping ones as well.

I looked Hoshi over, quickly surveying her. To anyone walking in on us, it would look as if I was making a move on her while she was incapacitated.

"Lucifer." A masculine voice from directly behind startled me. I almost jumped in shock. Almost, but I was the Devil, and how would it look to see a man of such power jump at such a silly little thing?

I put up my façade to gaze back smugly at Hao Asakura, my long time friendly competition/greatest rival. "Hao."

"My daughter." The fire-wielding shaman would have slain me before I could have spoken if it weren't for the fact that I held his oldest daughter in my arms.

"What?...This?" I gestured toward the girl in my arms. "But my time's not up and I paid her in full just like all the rest of her customers."

"Bastard. Give her up now." A thin layer of flames developed on his skin and he readied himself to fight me for her.

"Make me." I smiled vindictively.

"Lucifer." Ivy stepped in between us and looked me in the eyes, begging me not to make matters worse. "Please stop."

I still held a certain weakness for her even after having vowed on several occasions to give her up. I had no choice but to give in to Ivy's request. I nodded and handed over Hoshi's body to her father.

"Thank you." Ivy's smile was fake. Sure she meant to be polite and gracious and everything, but knowing how much she didn't really love me killed me.

"Only for you." I winked at her as I disappeared in a quick puff of smoke. I reappeared seconds later a few couple hundred miles below ground. I trekked downward on a hot molten path covered with soot down to my underground kingdom. If you could really call it _my_ kingdom. Sure Hell was legally mine and I was the Devil, but it was an 'in name only' type of thing. Everyone knew my brother was still in charge even after having legally passed the job of running the place on to me eons ago.

He hadn't even asked if I wanted the job. He came to me one day and said, 'Lucy, I'm sick and tired of all this responsibility, so from now on, you're in charge. You call the shots; you're the big man on campus, the head honcho, the big cheese, the Devil. Have fun.' He dumped all the paper work and legal issues on top of me, and he built a playboy mansion for himself out in the Hot Springs District. I hated my brother. And he hated me. What's worse, he didn't even bother trying to hide it.

Without having to pay much attention to where I was going, I meandered my way down to the docks.

"Hello Lucifer! How are you today darling?", greeted a young employee with bright blue hair and an even brighter red and yellow kimono with orange obi.

"Hello Botan." I mumbled tonelessly to the ferrywoman. "I'm God-awful as usual. Row me across."

The chipper girl nodded enthusiastically and got in a spare boat docked on the River Styx. I got in after her and took a seat. "Where to love?" Her bright smile pierced into my skull and her perky eyes cut through the doom and gloom surrounding the dismal subterranean fortress.

"Hot Springs District. I've got some business to attend to, and a certain someone to speak with." It was a bad start to a bad day, and Botan's bright and cheery attitude was not making it any easier on me.

"Ew….I don't like it there. Too many of the wrong sort if you asked me. OH! Don't tell Dia on me, though! I wouldn't want him to get the wrong idea!" Botan jabbered on as she rowed, filling in my deliberate silence with animated talking and gesturing. I nodded occasionally, all the while wishing I had hired another ferryman; the mute man that I had interviewed was looking pretty choice at that moment.

I tuned Botan out most of the trip, instead favoring looking over the side of the boat at the souls floating in the water like they were on a float trip or some kind of relaxing vacation. The dead down in the underworld are too relaxed for their own good. When we got closer to the District, I couldn't help but overhear what Botan was yammering about, "You really should get yourself a girl Lucy. Maybe your brother could set you up? Diablo's got plenty of women friends, and he can't sleep with them all in one day, so maybe—"

"—That won't be necessary Botan." I interrupted her before she got too far into the subject and went on and on about my love life. My non-existent love life.

My brother had tried to set me up before with a few hundred of his concubines. They were nice women, but they scared me. The sort of women he employs always made me uncomfortable with their skimpy clothes and overly friendly hands. Despite my obvious discomfort, Diablo said I needed to be more manly, and that giving myself AIDS would help, but I knew the women offerings were just a way for him to poke fun at me. It was his round about way of laughing in my face and suggesting that I couldn't get a woman in bed on my own, so I needed him to hire girls for me.

I stepped out of the boat once Botan docked it and found myself standing in front of a place from my strangest nightmares. The huge black building with tinted windows and red shades. Loud music blaring like fire engine sirens and people screaming bloody murder. I took a deep breath and let myself in. As I crossed the threshold the volume of the music seemed to increase tenfold. It was dark, damp, and humid inside. I hated that place. Half-naked women greeted me fondly and with a distinct sense of over familiarity. I smiled and waved back at them, but tried not to look directly at them, afraid to see something that should be covered up.

"Lucifer!" One woman in particular ran up and hugged me.

"Adella!" I returned the hug.

"It's been forever since you've come 'round here! How are you?" The woman Adella, my brother's favorite, was a good friend of mine. She ran the books and made sure all the gentlemen kept up with boarding and entertainment fees. She was the one truly in charge of the place, and she did a good job of keeping everything in order.

"I'm fine." I put on a brave face for her and smiled. It would do no good upsetting her just because I was having a bad day. "What about you?"

The short, red-haired woman in tight leather clothing returned to her post behind the front desk, smiling and humming a spirited tune all the way. "Ah, I'm all right. What can I do ya for today?"

Short might be a bit of an understatement when describing Adella's height. While I stood a good 5.7 feet, the spicy little woman just barely breeched 4.4. Yet somehow my brother at 5.8 still managed to favor her above all the other girls. Despite being vertically challenged, Adella maintained a commanding attitude. She was in charge and everyone knew it. If you got in Adella's way, then you were going down in searing flames. She was not one to be trifled with. Her chest length, blazing red hair done in banana curls matched the fire in her soul almost exactly. Both held the same burning, wild characteristics. Yet somehow Adella kept a softer side to her. She could be dangerous, but she could be gentle. She could kill if she wanted, but she was cuddly and flouncy too. Her dark green eyes complimented her hair coloring and thin features, while her clothing showed off said features to an almost disgusting extent.

Tight, black-leather shorts that almost looked swimming suitish, thigh high boots that must have caused her horrible blisters, and a short, lime green tank top that exposed plenty of mid-drift and cleavage yet managed to cover her arms with its billowing kimono sleeves. Around her neck was a small black stone on a choker that my brother had given her. I wasn't sure what its significance was, but I never saw her without it.

"Well?" Two dark emeralds gazed up at me impatiently.

I had forgotten she was talking to me. "Uh? Oh! I'm just here to see Diablo. Where is he?"

Adella cracked open a huge logbook that looked to weigh more than she did. She skimmed the pages until she arrived at the desired one and stopped. Her professional look clicked into place, but she still managed to sound cheery. "Here we are!" Her face fell a bit. "Oh…he's up on the sixth floor with the new girl. I don't like her—she's too ditzy…and too pretty."

I smiled as the girl pouted jealously. "Don't worry, you're his favorite. You always will be."

"Aw. That's sweet." She kissed the air just to the side of both of my cheeks in a distinctly European style. "Do you want me to get you a girl while you wait? Your brother is sure to take his time with the new meat, and Eve will be great company for you for a few hours." Her offer was considerate, but unsettling.

"Uh, no thanks. I'll be fine waiting for a few hours by myself." I blushed and tried to hide it sheepishly, but Adella quickly caught on.

"Oh…you're still a—well virginity can easily be cured. Perhaps another day? You'd like it Lucy, it's fun; why don't you try Donna out?" I shook my head rapidly. "No? Well…someday you'll—"

"—Someday I'll tear this place down." I smiled, falling onto a familiar topic of conversation with her.

"Of course. How could I forget?" She put the big book back under the desk and glanced at her watch. "What are you going to do for a few hours?"

"I don't know…talk to you? You're the only one I'm comfortable with down here." I leaned up against the front desk and sighed.

"You're too much of a gentleman Lucifer…" She whipped out a red cloth and started cleaning the counter top indifferently.

"Thanks…" There was a long pause and I watched her clean for a minute. She knew I wanted to talk about something else, and she was patiently waiting for me to get on to the subject. "Adella? I'm in charge down here aren't I?"

"Yes. You're the Devil, therefore, you are in charge of Hell." A slight smile found its way into her voice.

"Then why do you have more power and say about what goes on down here than I do?" I flicked a piece of dust angrily off the counter.

"Oh Lucy." She set down the cloth and gave me an apprising look, determining how much of the truth I could handle. "You know that Diablo still runs things even though he legally signed everything over to you a couple hundred years ago. You're like the queen of England; you've got no real power, but you're an important social figure."

"Thanks." I muttered sarcastically, trudging over to an armchair in the parlor and sinking into the seat. "I'm insignificant aren't I?"

"Yes." I loved how honest she was with me.

"And even though I'm suppose to be in charge, I can't do a thing to change even the most miniscule detail of anything that happens. I have no say in anything, and am of little to no consequence." I continued my moping.

"True." She took a seat next to me on the floor with her head on my knee, occasionally stroking my leg. She sat and heard me out.

"Great. I'm only a formality that my brother has to step around to get his way. Plus he stuck me with all the paperwork—"

"—That you force upon your underlings." She reminded me.

"That I force upon my underlings." I nodded, agreeing. "Underlings are one of the few perks of being 'in charge'."

"That and first pickings on any woman." Adella chuckled to herself, knowing full well that my brother got first pick on any woman that came through Hell.

A question suddenly appeared in the back of my mind. I looked seriously at Adella. "Can I ask you something?"

An affirmative nod was my answer.

"Girls don't like it when you take advantage of them do they?"

She shook her head but remained silent.

"And they hate it when you trick them."

A nod.

"And I suppose they're not too keen about you threatening to make them murder their sisters, are they?"

"I wouldn't be." Adella shrugged, not bothering to ask what had brought up my strange questions.

"And how long do you think you'd stay mad about the sister murdering thing?" I held my breath tentatively.

"Indefinitely." She shrugged, returning to her station at the desk.

"Great." I sighed again.

"You've met someone." Adella smirked knowingly.

"Define 'someone'." I sunk even further into the lounge chair, not in the mood to discuss women, especially not that Asakura girl.

"You've met a girl that you fancy!" The scheming matchmaker was already planning the wedding.

I rolled my eyes.

The smirk dropped from Adella's face. "It's not Ivy again is it?" Her dull tone irked me to no end. Who was she to interfere in my non-existent love life?

I stood and sighed. "Where's the library, Adella? I'm going to read a book while I wait."

She cast me a warning look. "You wouldn't like the books your brother keeps."

I raised an eyebrow.

"They're all picture books." She hurried to explain.

My eyebrow dropped and I blushed a bright pink color. "Oh. Go figure my brother would have a library full of that perverted garbage." I sat back down and prepared to talk about one of my least favorite subjects with the woman that my brother positively adored. There was no way around talking all about Hoshi and Thorn now.

"So, about this girl you're seeing, what's her name? Where does she live? Is she pretty? What does she look like? When did you meet her? When are you marrying her? How many children—"

"—Stop." I got a nosebleed just thinking about all the things Adella had mentioned. 'Hoshi and me?' For once Adella respected my request and shut her mouth to let me speak. "It's not like that. There is no one. It's just Ivy's daughters. The older one made a deal with me, and I was just talking to her about what she had to do in return for me doing her the favor. There's nothing between us and there never will be. She hates me."

It was relatively silent in the room. Adella fiddled nervously with the hem of her sleeve, and only two or so girls walked through the room to turn in half of their day's profit. "So there really is no one…"

"I'm only seeing her on business." Another moment of silence passed. "But then why do I feel so awful about using her and losing her?" I stood and walked over to the old grandfather clock in the parlor. It had stopped working years and years ago, but for some reason no one had gotten a new clock yet.

"What was the deal?" Adella walked over to the mini-bar and poured me a, what I hope was, a non-alcoholic strawberry daiquiri. She handed the drink to me, made one of her own, and seated herself, crossing her legs daintily.

I ran a hand through my hair and sighed. "It's ridiculous really. She wants me to make sure this musical at her school gets cast the way she wants it. She did a pretty good job making sure I couldn't get a hold of her soul or do anything to her, but then I told her that I could make her murder her little sister, and she fainted…"

Adella shifted uncomfortably in her seat. "Ew…well that's a great start to the relationship."

"There is no relationship Adella." I glared over my shoulder at the girl.

"Says you. You wouldn't know what love was if it socked you one." The red-haired temptress rose from her seat and stalked toward me.

I turned on her, fully fed up with her insinuations. "Adella, there's nothing going on! She's a human for god's sake! I'm not in love with a human! It's a business transaction!"

"Oh the HELL it is! If you care nothing for the girl, then why do you feel guilty for mistreating her?" I stumbled backward as she shoved me.

"I don't feel guilty!" I pathetically tried to defend myself from her assaults.

"You said you felt awful for using her; that's guilt, Lucy. Live with it."

Any further arguments between us were halted by the arrival of a business gentleman. "Um…Hello? I'm here for my appointment with Gigi…"

Adella's attention was diverted momentarily, but before she walked off to make the man comfortable while he waited for Gigi, Adella glared back at me and hissed so only I could hear. "I'll deal with you later." She walked off with the man to the waiting room, leaving me to my own devices.

I don't know how long it was before someone tapped me on the shoulder hesitantly. "A-hem?"

I jumped. I had been so lost in my thoughts…

"S-sorry!" A small blonde girl with red eyes blushed up at me, shriveling under my gaze. "I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to startle you! I was just—that is to say—"

"—It's okay." I rushed to shush her. I didn't know where the girl had come from, but she really didn't fit in with any of the other showgirls in the building. "Uh…did you need something?" I blinked.

"Mr. Diablo is ready to see you. I was instructed to come and fetch the gentleman waiting in the front, and I can only assume that's you." The blonde cowered even more in fear of me.

"What's your name?"

"Martha, sir. Oh wait! No, no it's not! They changed it, you see, and I'm still not used to being called…Bunny. I'm sorry!" She cringed.

"It's okay. You'll grow accustomed to it eventually. You wouldn't happen to be the 'new girl' would you?" It was an innocent enough question, but the girl's eyes widened like I had asked her measurements.

"Uh…yes and no. I am new, but the 'new girl' is up with Mr. Diablo. Her name is Satine. I haven't had my initiation or first customer yet even…I just died a day or two ago, and I just arrived. OH! But I'm boring you, aren't I! I'm soooo sorry, sir! Please forgive me!" 'Bunny' collapsed to her knees and sunk even further into the floor.

I stared for a minute, not sure how to react to her strange behavior. After a second of thought I picked her up off the floor and stood her up straight. "How did you end up in Hell?"

"Um…" She blushed as my hands touched her. "I was going to Heaven, but then Gabriel managed to convince the others that I couldn't possibly be allowed in because of how I died." She didn't dare make eye contact with me, so I had to tilt her head upwards to make her look at me.

"Gabe…the biggest stick in the mud ever…figures. How did you die? Whatever you did, it couldn't possibly be bad enough to land you in this whorehouse." She cringed at my course language. "Sorry…anyway, how did you die?"

Again her gaze dropped to the floor. I didn't bother adjusting her that time. "I caught my boyfriend cheating on me, so I jumped off Tokyo Tower."

"My. GOD." I smacked my hand against my forehead. "You're here for suicide! The justice system up there is so screwed up." I paused, thinking of what I could do for the girl. "Tell you what," I snapped my fingers and a pen and paper appeared from thin air. "You obviously won't last a week here. You just don't belong, so I'm writing a letter to Gabe to tell him to screw himself. Raphael and Michael should make sure you get in. Go to the docks, and Botan should be able to take you straight to the Gates." I handed over the note and stepped past her, on my way to see my older sibling. "See ya Martha."

"Wait! How will this get me into Heaven?" The small red-eyed blonde gaped at me.

"Trust me; it will." I sent a flirtatious wink her way. "I am the Devil after all. Even if my brother does run this place, I still have some power."

"Oh my gosh! _You're_ Lucifer!" She didn't wait for an answer. "Thank you so much!" She ran off to the docks before anyone could object.

I smiled and shook my head, making my way to the elevator. The lift was more of a dance cage than an actual elevator. The black bars looked like something out of a gothic nightmare, the space was heavily perfumed with the different scents of the various women that worked in the establishment, and erotic music screeched in the background. I was thankful when the elevator opened on the sixth floor, but I stepped out of one nightmare and into another as I stood in the long hallway. Loud music played, heavy perfume scent stained the air, and I tried to ignore the screams and moans coming from behind the many doors. At the end of the hallway was a door. A big black and red door decorated with chains and flames and impressions of the demons of hell. I took a deep breath and took started my journey down the long hallway.

The dim lights, covered by bright red scarves, flickered as I walked pass. The lady palms that stood guard outside a few random rooms reached out their branches and grabbed at me, groping. I didn't dare look at any of the 'art' that hung on the walls, but instead kept my gaze on the door at the end.

I heaved a sigh of relief as my fingertips brushed against the cold metal of the door handle. The enchained demons etched into the door reached out to me, trying to ensnare me in their iron grips. One demon in particular stood out even though it was hiding in the background. It stood apart from the chaos going on in the rest of the piece. It looked like the runt of the bunch. I had never liked that door. It reminded me too much of myself: an outcast in the underworld, my own kingdom.

I pushed open the door without bothering to knock. I knew he was in there; I could hear the moans and groans coming from inside the room. I hated that room. It was too big. And dark. And…well everything about it perfectly summarized my brother. It was his study/make-shift throne room/living room/office. The last part was what scared me considering the only business he did was with the women of the house.

The floor was a mosaic of blood red and obsidian black pieces of glass. The ceiling was completely comprised of mirrors with a ruby chandelier in the center, and the walls were frescoed flames. It looked like some sort of grand library with the walls covered by shelves and shelves of books. 'Probably more "picture books".' There was a couch situated off to the side and a TV screen in front of it with a coffee table in-between. The couch was, of course, black with red throw pillows, and the legs on the coffee table were feet with claws. Even the stand that the TV was on was made of black rot iron with cold metal cobras slithering up the posts. They flicked their tongues at me and spread their hoods. I glared and continued looking around the room.

A demonic throne sat against what appeared to be the back wall of the room. Bookcases were set up to divide the room so that you couldn't see what was hidden back behind the throne in the secret part of the room. I of course knew what my brother was hiding behind the wall of bookshelves and the curtain behind the throne: his office. Anyway, the throne was covering a secret door to his office. End of story. The rest of the room wasn't very interesting…just a couple of fountains spewing blood and a few other conventional pieces of furniture all in red and black.

"Diablo!" A woman cried from the back room. I tried to tune out her unnerving screams.

"Sorry baby. Someone 'important' is waiting." A husky, overly masculine, chauvinistic-pig voice shushed the obviously unsatisfied girl who must have been the 'Satine' that Martha had mentioned.

"They can wait…can't they?" Satine begged and pleaded.

"No. Now get out." The man's devilish tone laughed at the woman as he pushed her off the bed and to the floor.

She let out a startled and somewhat injured gasp as she hit the floor. I knew the feeling. I had been thrown to the same cold, hard floor at least a dozen times before as punishment for questioning my older brother.

"But…I thought—" Satine started to argue.

"OUT." I flinched as I heard the sharp smack of his hand to her cheek.

Seconds later a girl wrapped in a sheet, holding her cheek tenderly ran past me and out of the room as fast as she could. I pitied her. Whatever she had done, she didn't deserve this.

"Lucifer." A dark and ominous voice from the shadows acknowledged my presence.

"Diablo." I returned the acknowledgement. Thankfully my voice didn't shake in fear, but remained level.

"Bunny told me that someone 'important' needed to see me. I thought it was some gorgeous woman. I'm quite disappointed. Though you could pass for a woman with that hair of yours. A flat-chested woman, but still. Don't you agree?"

"Are you any better?" I ventured a smart remark, hoping it wouldn't cost me. I held my breath and waited for my punishment.

He laughed. "Too true." I let out the breath. There was a smile in his voice; he wasn't angry. "How are you brother?" A figure stepped out from the curtain behind the throne, just finishing re-zipping his pants. I hadn't seen my brother in person in over a year. I looked him over and found him exactly as I remembered: silky, raven's wing hair down to his chest, reddish-brown demon's eyes, crooked smile, strong jaw, detailed face, well built upper chest and arms, strong legs covered by black jeans, but no shirt. Around his neck was a simple chain choker. He hadn't changed at all.

"I'm well. And you?" I didn't take my eyes off of him for fear he'd pull a knife or a gun on me if I dropped my guard.

My brother obviously wasn't concerned that I'd try to kill him. He turned his back to me to take a seat on his throne with his chin resting on one hand and a leg thrown carelessly over the armrest. "I'm extremely angry at the moment. That Satine isn't very good at all. I was excited about her because she was new and might have some new moves or something, but frankly I've seen better." He lay lazily on his throne, making himself as comfortable as possible. "Take a seat Lucy. This had better be good." A couch appeared out of nowhere for me to sit on. "I know you don't come here because you like visiting me, and I know for a fact you don't come here for the women, so what the hell do you want?"

"Well…" I cleared my throat nervously. Was there anyway to bring up the subject and not arouse suspicion?

"Oh just say it." My brother was not one to be kept waiting for long periods of time.

"As the devil, I can bend free will, right?" I let the question slip out as fast as possible.

He raised his eyebrow. "Uh…Yeah…Why do you ask? It's not like you've ever been interested in the job before. Come to think of it, the only devil powers you use are teleporting in flames…Why the change of heart?" So much for not arousing his suspicions.

"Well, I have all these powers, right? Why not use them? I am the devil after all, and I should stop being such a light-weight and start being able to take care of myself and have complete mastery over my own powers…right?" I held my breath as Diablo appraised me.

He smiled genuinely. "Good. You're getting to be more and more like me every time I see you. Soon you'll have your own harem and everything. I'm proud. You're not as big of a screw up as I thought you were." Somehow even when complimenting me he insulted me. The condescending tone was overly evident in his voice.

"Thank you. I'm glad I'm not a total disappointment to you." I found myself starting to smile. I had never been close to my elder sibling, but at that moment I felt that a sort of bond between us was born.

"I didn't say that." And then it died.

"W-what?" I blinked.

"I didn't say you weren't a total disappointment." He smirked disdainfully. "I just said you're not as big of a screw up as I thought. You're still a total disappointment. There's no way you could ever live up to all my expectations. You'll always fall short no matter what you do. I thought you realized that…but perhaps you aren't as smart as I gave you credit for." I could feel my insides liquidize and my stomach sink with his poisonous words. "I hate you and I always will. I would prefer that you know it so I can smear it in your face. It's not like I make some big secret of it…"

"Oh." He seemed to be done insulting me, so I decided to get back to business and parish all thoughts of ever having a brotherly love relationship with that impossible man. "Well…in that case…how do I go about control free will?"

"Why do you want to know? _Really_. Don't lie; I'll just keep asking." He let out a tired yawn as he rung for a servant. A brunette in a bikini ran in and poured my brother a glass of wine. She tried to offer me a glass as well, but being a non-drinker, I declined. My brother saw fit to comment on my drinking habits and momentarily forgot about my question of free will.

"I just don't drink. It tastes nasty." I politely refused the drink from the server girl.

"Don't be ridiculous! How can you ever hope to be half the man I am when you don't drink? You'll never be half the devil either." My lush of a brother quickly downed the wine and called for another.

"I don't need to drink to be a man." I glared openly as the girl poured my brother another glass.

"Don't drink, don't smoke, still a virgin? God. That's no way to live. You're probably going to be such a lightweight when you have your first drink. You're such a momma's boy. No wonder she liked you best. You seriously need some help little brother. Now, back to the subject at hand: free will. Why are you interested in your powers now of all times after having had them several hundred years and having never used them?"

"There's a girl." I admitted. It would be faster if I just spit it out and got it over with. "She made a deal with me and to hold up my end of the bargain I have to mess with a little free will. I told her I could do it, but you and I both know I have no idea what I'm doing, so I swallowed my pride, came here, and now I'm asking for your help." I lowered my eyes; my pride was taking a huge beating for that Asakura girl.

"You're first deal with the devil! I remember _my _first deal…" He smiled down at me, his eyes saying everything. His annoying smile constantly reminded me that I was inexperienced and had no idea what I was doing.

"Diablo…" I kept my voice even and level, warning him that I was in no mood to listen to him walk down memory lane.

"So what is she giving you? Do you get her soul? Is she going to be your slave?" My brother ignored my warning and took his sweet time torturing me.

"DAMIEN." I was sick of his games.

He jumped out of his seat and looked like he was going to strangle me. Glass shattered, the room shook, and a gale force wind started to blow. "DON'T. CALL. ME. **_THAT._**"

I smiled evilly at my brother's fury. "What? It's your name."

"It is NOT."

"It is, your _real_ name." My smile widened as his anger increased. "Will you help me or not?" I couldn't resist teasing him. It was such a rare occasion that I couldn't turn down the opportunity. "Well Damien? What do you say big brother?"

"Fine. Just stop calling me by my given name." The hair bristling on the back of my brother's neck lay flat again as he regained his calm and sat back down on his throne. "So, what were the conditions of the deal you made with the girl?"

"She wants me to get a musical at her school cast the way she wants it. I have to manipulate the people casting the play somehow. I do as she says and she owes me one." I quickly skimmed over the basic outline of Hoshi's plan.

"And what kind of favor are you going to call in on her?" My brother's face held a perverted smirk.

I hastily shot down any delusions of his that I might be bedding with a mortal woman. "Nothing like that. That was one of the conditions."

His face dropped. "You. Are. CRAZY. What were you thinking agreeing to that?"

"Look, bro, I don't have the same mind set as you. I see women as more than a source of entertainment. I already know exactly what I want from her." I looked down my nose at my brother's treatment of women.

"So who is this girl anyway that would risk so much just so her little school musical gets cast right?" My brother laughed to himself, fingering the chain around his neck.

"I believe you've met her: Hoshi Asakura." I tried to say her name without any emotion behind the words.

A hint of recognition flashed behind his eyes, but it was there only for a second. In a fleeting instant it was gone and replaced by a look of him pretending to be trying to remember. "No, I don't think I've ever heard of her. Sure I know the Asakuras, but I don't think I've met the girl. Anyway, about manipulating free will—"

"—You do know her." I insisted, unable to let him push her aside like that. "It was only a few years ago that you raped her." I stood, the hair on the back of my neck bristling.

He rolled his eyes, clearly not caring about the matter at all. "Fine. Yes, I remember her. So what if I did rape her? It was fun. That's all that matters. Now, moving on to more important matters—"

"—You got her pregnant, you bastard, and all you can say is 'it was fun'!" I took a few brave steps forward, poised to attack him.

"Look, Lucifer, so what. She had an abortion. There's no child, so it's not my problem. Even if she had kept the kid, it's still not an issue for me. I'm under no obligation toward her." He easily shrugged off all the pain and suffering he had caused the girl with a lazy 'not my problem'.

"You ruined her life! Doesn't that mean anything to you?" I saw red, marching right up to him and grabbing him by the throat.

"No." He smiled his carefree grin and I felt like punching his pretty white teeth out.

I don't remember what happened after that, but a few hours later I woke up on the couch in his room with my brother standing over me. His hair was slightly singed, his cheek looked swollen, and it looked like someone had clawed at his throat. Diablo looked down at me disdainfully when he saw I was up. Adella was sitting next to him looking down worriedly.

"Oh thank goodness." The short red-haired woman muttered as she helped me sit up. "How do you feel?"

"Drowsy…" I raised a hand to my forehead and blinked several times, waiting for my vision to clear.

"He should be fine; it's not like I hit him." Diablo rolled his eyes and tried not to be jealous as Adella fussed over me.

"It's a good thing you didn't hit him. Both your mother and myself would have been very upset if you had hurt poor Lucy." Adella took full advantage of my brother's jealousy.

"'Poor Lucy'! He attacked me! I only knocked him out cold for a few hours. Look what he did to my beautiful hair." Damien pointed pathetically to the singed bits of bangs, hoping to win some of Adella's pity.

The pretty redhead rolled her emerald eyes and smiled sarcastically. "Well, I'm sure he did what he did for a good reason. I have to get back to the books, but you two boys play nice, okay?" With that she left.

My brother stared after her for a while until he turned his gaze on me. "You."

"Hmm?" I looked nervously at my older sibling.

"Love isn't really real. Women of the underworld can't fall in love. Don't let any woman tell you otherwise. A man can love a woman all he wants, but women like Adella and Hoshi aren't free to give their love fully to one man. Their love has to be bought, so therefore it isn't real. They're not allowed to fall in love; it would be bad for business. Remember that." I sat there and stared at me brother trying to register too many things at once. Why was he telling me that? What did he mean?

He interrupted my thoughts again with a closing phrase: "Just never fall in love with a woman who sells herself. It will never work out." He got up from where he was sitting next to me and walked back to his throne. "Anyway, enough of me pretending to be a good big brother. Back to business: I can't explain to you how to mess with free will, you have to learn by yourself. It's really easy though, but not everyone can do it." He fished a chain, much like the one he wore around his neck, out of his pocket and tossed it to me. "Put it on and you shouldn't have any trouble on the trip. What I'm going to tell you to do is going to seem really stupid, but if you follow my instructions to the letter, you should be more than enough to accomplish Hoshi's little errand. Take a cucumber and carve your name into it. Throw it into a river under a bridge, and bow to the Kappa that appears. Tell him you're my little brother on a quest to master your powers. The Kappa'll give you something to take to the griffin on top of the one of the volcanoes in the Ring of Fire. Do whatever the griffin tells you and you should be able to help out Miss Asakura. Oh, and after you finish up on your little quest, you'll have to visit Miss Asakura as get her to tell you the names of the people you have to manipulate. That's all the help I can give, now get out of here before I decide to decapitate you."

I nodded and stood to leave. "Thank you. Goodbye Damien." I was gone in a rush of flames before he could kill me for using his given name.

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Mikau: I'm really excited because my uncle Steve is coming home from Iraq! He's on a plane right now, and he should be home for Christmas! I haven't seen him in almost a year and a half, and I'm soooooo excited!

Thanks To: yo wuz up, HAO-Addictive, Touch of the Wind, Kiva Kyoyama, Andrea Nefisto, MaiValentinefan, GothicShamaness13, and knux33.

To HAO-Addictive: Yes, Hao knows that Val is Ivy, but no Ivy doesn't know that he knows. Sorry if it's confusing.

PLEASE REVIEW!


	33. An Unlikely Pair

Mikau: Hello! It's exam week! I looooooove exam week! It's soooo relazing. No homework, no studying, just tests. It's great. I know; you all think I'm insane now, right? Well I'm just a freak like that. School is too easy for me. Anyway, exam week means that Christmas Break is coming, and that means a lot of free time. Yea! Anyway, this chapter has a pretty limey part, so it's marked. It's not too bad actually, so it should be probably okay to read…but anyway suit yourself. I had my Religion and Spanish exams today, and both were really, really easy. My friend Serena will probably murder me if (when) she sees this because she doesn't share my views on exams. I especially liked the Spanish one. We were supposed to write a 10 sentence essay about our daily routine and what we do on the weekends, and mine turned out to be more like 20-30 sentences. Señorita is going to smite me when she has to read and grade it. Anyway, on with the chapter!

**_Disclaimer:_** I don't own Shaman King.

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An Unlikely Pair

I woke up with my mom and dad keeping watch over me anxiously. Ivy sat on a chair at my beside and Hao rested his head in her lap. Hana and the

Fausts were still helping fix up Akira from his little fight with Thorn, so I knew I hadn't been out long. Perhaps fifteen minutes at most? Still it had been enough for both my mother and father to fall asleep. Most of the original Shaman King gang had gone out to eat after the big fight, so the house was pretty much empty. It struck me as odd, though, that Pilika, Ren, and their younger daughter had gone with the others. I would have thought for sure that they would have at least checked in on Akira, but then again maybe he didn't have a very good relationship with his family. Hadn't Hana told me something like that once a while ago?

Aunt Anna and Uncle Yoh stood in the doorway supervising. Yoh hesitantly placed an arm around his wife. Anna didn't seem to notice. "So…" My uncle started tentatively.

"Yes?" Anna didn't look at him, her cold eyes fixed straight ahead.

"When were you going to tell me?" Yoh ventured a quick peek at her face.

"Tell you what?" Anna carefully studied whatever it was she was looking at.

"About…the baby." Yoh no longer hid the fact that he was looking right at her.

Anna still didn't make eye contact. I could tell she was nervous. "What baby?"

"Ours. That is—unless the baby's not mine? It's probably Hao's. He's around here more than I am, so it wouldn't surprise me." There was a hint of a teasing tone in Yoh's voice, but Anna didn't seem to hear it.

"So Hao told you?" Anna snuck a look at her husband.

"Uh…yeah…why didn't you tell me we were having another baby?"

She shrugged.

"So do we know if it's a boy or a girl yet or anything? When is it due?" Yoh seemed happy to be a father-to-be again, and his enthusiasm was making Anna smile lightly.

"We don't really know much yet, but the baby is due in October right around Halloween." Anna let him wrap his arms around her and feel her stomach.

"Wanna go somewhere?" Yoh suggested out of the blue.

"What?" My blonde aunt seemed uncertain of whether or not he was serious.

"Come on; just the two of us. It'll be fun. Don't you think we could use some alone time? And it's not like anyone's going to miss us." Yoh was slowly wearing Anna down. "Now-a-days it's always about getting Hao and Ivy back together. What about us? Don't we deserve to be alone once in awhile?" He kissed her quickly on the lips, and that proved to be the deciding factor. She smiled, pulling him off to do something to rekindle their relationship.

I smiled knowingly. 'I wish I had someone to love me like that…' I frowned. As soon as I had formulated the words in the back of my mind they sounded stupid. It was never going to happen. 'People in my kind of work don't fall in love.' I wiped the thoughts from my mind and swore never to think about such childish things ever again.

"You're up." A soft voice murmured next to my ear.

I jumped, just noticing a girl with chest-length brown hair and dark eyes. 'Thorn…' I screamed, remembering what had happened before I had passed out. "GET AWAY FROM ME!" I pushed her away, falling out of bed and on top of my father in the process.

Hao, jerked awake by a combination of my screaming and being landed on, was disorientated to say the least. Ivy, also startled, fell drowsily out of her chair just in time for her to see me running to my bedroom and locking the door from the inside, barricading myself inside where I couldn't hurt anyone.

I only had a few seconds to myself before the three of them were at my door banging on it. My father spoke first, "Hoshi? Hoshi, it Hao; are you all right? What's the matter?"

Ivy spoke next, "Hoshi what's wrong? Are you feeling okay honey?"

I didn't answer either of them. Hao tried again, "Hoshi, come on. We're really worried."

"Hoshi, it's Val. Do you want to talk about it?" She paused, giving me response time. "At least tell us if you're okay." She turned to Hao, no longer talking to me. "Does she do this often?"

"No…she has occasional outbreaks every couple years, but normally it's Thorn who does this kind of thing. I can't for the life of me figure out what's going on…" My parents whispered in hushed tones trying to come up with a game plan.

"Do you think he…?" Ivy suggested.

"That son of a bitch! If he did anything to her I'll—"

"—Shh! Not helping. She can hear us, and it's not doing us any good pretending that she can't. Hoshi please talk to us. We care about you and you're scaring us." Ivy's motherly tone almost broke my heart. I truly wanted to tell her about my deal with Lucifer and all my other schemes, but I couldn't.

I physically **couldn't** form the words in my mouth. The whole time they had been knocking on the door I had been trying to tell them about how Lucifer was going to have me murder Thorn, but something wouldn't let me. My entire mouth burned when I tried to tell them and a tiny pinprick point on my lip stung like the fires of hell in summer whenever I tried to snitch.

I cast a quick glance in my vanity mirror, and sure enough, there it was. Just looking at me you wouldn't have known that it was there, but if you looked with a microscope, it was plain as day. There was a small scar on my bottom lip where he had bit me. I thought I felt something weird when he kissed me, taking my blood. 'He must have forced some of his demonic aura or whatever into my body through the cut. That must be how he's controlling me…' "Damn. It."

"Hoshi?" My father was back to trying to get me to talk. "Please…" His voice was getting desperate.

"Just a simple 'Yes' I'm okay, or 'No' I'm not." I could just picture my mother burying her face in my father's chest for comfort.

"Hey Hosh, it's Thorn. What's the matter sis?"

My sister's voice seemed to awaken my own. "Stay away! Get her away from me! It's for her own good!" Something inside me stated burning and I doubled over in pain, shrieking.

"HOSHI?" Both Hao and Ivy started freaking out.

I dragged my body over to my bed and managed a weak, "I'm fine; just stay away from me." I let out another muffled yowl.

"Hoshi, we're coming in." In a quick flash of flames Hao teleported Ivy and himself inside my room.

"Stay back." I warned, creating a pathetic firewall in-between us.

My father washed away my flames with a flick of his wrist, and Ivy rushed to my side. In seconds I was in her arms and her warm tears brushed against my skin. Hao took the spot next to her and looked me over carefully before deciding I was okay. He let out the breath he had been holding and hugged me as well.

"Mind explaining?" He smoothed my hair and smiled tiredly.

I shook my head, burying my face in the nook of my mother's neck. She rested her head on top of mine and held me. "Please just keep Thorn away. It's not safe for any of you to be near me. Please go?" I winced in pain as Lucifer's little spell took hold again.

"Hoshi, what did Lucifer do to you?" Hao caressed my face affectionately.

I shook my head and cringed. The spell had punished me for even thinking about answering. "Just leave me alone."

"Hoshi." Ivy looked down at me in her arms with a scared gleam in her eyes.

I shook my head. "Nothing." I waited for the pain from speaking to come, but it never did. Apparently the spell didn't care if you lied. "I'm just feeling ill; that's all. Please leave me alone and keep Thorn away." I pulled the covers over my head and prayed that they would take a hint.

Ivy glanced at Hao. Hao gazed at Ivy. They shared a conspiring look. No one spoke, but each placed a quick kiss on one of my cheeks and without another word they left the same way they had come, looking worried.

I let out the breath I had been holding as they ushered Thorn away from the door where she had been waiting and instructed her not to come near me. When I heard three sets of footsteps retreat down the hallway I let the tears come.

'What were you thinking? A deal with the Devil? You're such an idiot!' I sobbed as I berated myself for trusting him and letting myself get into this mess. 'You should have known that he couldn't be trusted. He _is_ THE DEVIL after all. The title doesn't come with a very trustable connotation. God, I'm such an idiot. I TRUSTED him…I never trust anyone, and then, all of the sudden I decide to trust someone and this is what happens. Well, lesson learned, no more trusting.' I felt a falling sensation in the pit of my stomach. I had trusted him, and he had easily betrayed my trust like it was nothing. 'Oh quit pouting like a love-lost schoolgirl. You were a complete moron to have trusted him, so stop acting so star-struck that he used you.'

"But I trusted him…" A thought hit me like a piano from the sky. "Arrrgh! Just like I trusted his brother. God. Damn. It. They're all the same. All men are the same." I held my pillow tightly to my chest and cried. "And I'll never learn."

I probably cried myself to sleep because it was dark outside when I woke up. I don't know for how long I was asleep, but the digital clock on my bed-stand read 11:30 PM. My door was still shut and locked, but the barricade I had set up had been taken down. My father and possibly mother too had been in to check on me.

I got out of bed and walked into my personal bathroom. I brushed my hair and teeth and checked my reflection. A girl with waist length crimson hair and smoky-bright blue eyes stared back at me. If you ignored the small 3 scar below my eye and the new scar on my lip (both of which were hard to see unless you knew they were there), I was very pretty. I wasn't trying to be vain, but I knew that I was attractive. I washed off all my makeup and got ready for bed. I didn't feel like going in to work that night. I didn't think I would for the rest of the week. I simply wasn't in the mood to entertain stupid drunks or stupid perverts or basically stupid men in general. I put on my pajamas, a lacey red nightgown up to mid-thigh, and got in bed.

I had made up my mind to completely scrap my plans and schemes to get Akira and Thorn together. I was going to kill myself before I could be forced into murdering Thorn, and after I was dead, Hana could do his best to fix them up. He was pretty resourceful, and could probably handle it.

I got in bed and concentrated hard on the matter at hand: how would I do it? I didn't have any pills, and a gun would be too loud. I needed something quick and silent. A smirk imprinted itself on my face as I remembered something Thorn had tried to teach me when we were little. Our mother had had a way of using her furyoku to summon items and make them appear out of thin air. Thorn had inherited the power and one day was trying to teach me. I remembered vaguely what to do, but it would be rather difficult to summon a knife from all the way down in the kitchen.

I closed my eyes and concentrated my furyoku on the knife. A sharp one, so that it wouldn't have trouble going in. I wanted this to be as painless as possible. I envisioned myself picking up the knife. It took me several tries and almost all my furyoku before I successfully was able to grip the weapon, but in the end when I opened my eyes there it was in my hand. I made a small incision in my index finger, testing the object for sharpness. I flinched, shuddering at my own blood. 'This one will work.'

I didn't know whether or not I should hold my breath. I had never attempted something like this before, so I wasn't absolutely sure how to go about it. Just where does one stab oneself if one wishes to terminate one's life? After much deliberation I decided upon the stomach. I didn't have enough nerve to slit my throat or my wrist, and stabbing myself in the heart would be just to brutal to imagine, so I thought maybe the stomach would be best.

I raised the knife and held the cold metal to my skin. I held my breath, closed my eyes, and pushed hard. I immediately felt the sharp pain. I could feel the blood rushing to escape from the wound, but my life force still remained strong, intact. It was more than clear that this wasn't going to kill me. My mind started to race as I pulled out the knife. There was no blood on it, and my flesh immediately regenerated, covering the would-be hole in my stomach.

'No…' I tried again with the same non-fatal effect. 'No. No. No.' And again the knife plunged into me. The sharp pain of being stabbed came back, but I didn't die. It was as if I couldn't… "You bastard!" 'He's done this so I can't get out of our deal.'

I decided to try one last time, just to be sure. I raised the knife to my chest and pressed it to my left breast.

"I wouldn't do that." An annoying voice appeared out of nowhere. "It would be a shame to ruin such perfect breasts as yours." I lowered the knife and glared at the auburn-haired, onyx-eyed demon that had puffed into my room uninvited.

"Lucifer…" I glared at the figure seated upon my desk. "Why do you insist on torturing me? Why can't you just let me kill myself and be done with it?" I stabbed myself in the stomach again, ignoring the pain.

"It's not my fault that you didn't read the fine print in the contract." He pulled out a scroll and started reading. "To put it in simple terms that you can understand: the terms of our deal were that your soul wouldn't go to hell, you wouldn't have to sleep with anyone, and you owe me a favor. It only makes sense that you can't kill yourself to get out of it. Besides, I've already started work on my half of the deal, so you can't back out now. Or didn't you notice how physically fit I look as compared to me earlier?

I looked him over. He did look different…definitely more buff than the scrawny Lucifer before. He had obviously been doing some sort of extreme strenuous exercise judging from his torn, beat up, and dirty clothes. His shirt was covered in what looked like volcanic soot, and dried water stains. There were a couple sweat stains, and holes burned into the clothing. And it did look as if he had been attacked by some kind of clawed creature like a bear or a lion. "What happened to you?" My curiosity got the better of me and I just had to ask.

He had obviously been waiting to tell someone about his adventure, and I had the honor of being the first to ask. "Well, if you insist, I carved my name into a cucumber and threw it into the river beneath the bridge about five miles from here. This Kappa comes out and is set to eat me, but I tell him that I'm Diablo's little brother and that my brother sent me. I bow and then he bows back to me tells me that I have to dive to the bottom of the river and retrieve this pearl that he's got hidden. I dive in and search for it at the bottom, but all these other Kappas attacked me. I finally got the pearl, and then the first Kappa tells me I have to go scale Sakurajima, one of the most active volcanoes in Japan, and give the pearl to the griffin on top of the volcano. So I poof over to the base and start climbing. All the swimming I had been doing had already tired me out, so a few hours of climbing a volcano is pretty tough. I finally make it to the top some amount of hours later and when I get to the top the griffin starts attacking me. So there I am fighting a griffin on top of a volcano. He almost pushed me off too. I was beat from all the climbing, and I just barely won. I give the Kappa's pearl to the griffin, and then he tells me that I have to pawn it in at this shoppe down in Atlantis and come back with the money. Can you imagine the nerve of the guy? So I socked him one and then went off to Atlantis to pawn in the pearl. And of course the merpeople give me a hell of a lot of trouble trying to attack me and put me in jail for raping their princess a few hundred years back." He paused as I gave him a deadly look. "It was Diablo who raped her. He tried to frame me. After roughing me up some I finally managed to explain and get the money for the pearl. Then I had to climb all the way up the volcano again and finally the griffin told me to go visit a dragon in the woods and he would give me what I was looking for. It took forever to find the damn dragon, seeing as the griffin failed to specify as to which dragon in what woods. I had the most horrendous time with pickpockets, thieves, and all sorts of muggers in the woods on the way there. Thank god the dragon just straight out told me all the stuff I needed to know. He just handed me the book and I was on my way." He pulled a small, morocco-bound book, no larger than a pocket-sized Bible out of his back pocket and showed it to me. The writing was in some hieroglyphic-like symbol language that I couldn't read. "I figured you would be up, just on your way to work or something like that, so I decided to see if I could catch you before you left."

"Well as you can see I wasn't planning on going in for work." I motioned toward the knife.

"Oh. Right. Well, sorry, but you can't get out of this now that you're involved Hosh." He smiled sympathetically.

"Don't call me that!" I shrieked offensively. "Only my sister and dad call me that!"

He nodded. "Sorry. Hoshi." He looked me over and smiled fondly. "That nightgown really suits you."

I didn't think twice about stabbing him. I leaped from the bed and stabbed him through the heart. He gasped, startled at the sudden intrusion of the dagger into his body. Instead of blood, flames trickled out of the wound. I stood gaping at him, not thinking to let go of the knife that was still lodged in his chest. We stared at each other for the longest time; both or our eyes were wide and our mouths hung open. My other hand, the one not holding the dagger, was braced against his chest. His hands were rested on my hips, trying to push me away, but not really exerting any force, so they just stayed stationary there.

Soon the moment of shock wore off and he glared downward at me. "Well. If you wanna play that way…" He pulled the knife out of his chest, and with a snap his dirty clothing disappeared and he had a clean set of clothes on. It also looked like he had showered as well. His hair was shiny and still a bit damp. "I'll just leave." I stared after him as he climbed back up on my desk and tried to open the window. He was wearing a black set of dress pants and a red dress shirt with long, kimono-like sleeves.

"What was the purpose of changing your clothes?" I blinked several times as he struggled to get the window open.

"I'm going home. I couldn't possibly go back to my subjects looking like I did when I got here." He tugged again at the window, but it didn't budge.

"Yet you showed up looking in a complete disarray here?" I couldn't help wonder why he didn't just go straight home in the first place.

"I knew you would ask about what had happened to me if you saw my clothes all dirty and torn like that, and frankly I just wanted to tell the story and no one else will listen. Damn window." He sat back down on top of the desk.

"The window's locked." I carefully climbed up on top of the desk, not caring whether he saw up my nightgown or not. I flipped a switch on the window, and it swung open.

"I know. I didn't really want to leave in the first place." He shrugged. "I'm in no hurry to go home. I had intended to stay here awhile. I looked god-awful when I arrived and I think these clothes make me look much sexier, so I changed. Problem?"

"No, not really." I shrugged, not caring. I didn't realize that he meant he had changed clothes for me. "So why are you really here? Come to torment me?"

"No. I need to know the names of the people you want me to manipulate the free will of."

I sat back down on my bed and began to think. "Mr. Ross Brockville, Ms. Jenni Stormfield, and Mrs. Maggie Topplemen. Those are the directors."

He nodded and awkward silence followed. "I was going through the names on the cast list, and was wondering: at one point Rizzo sleeps with the leader of one of the other gangs, right?" I nodded as he continued. "The guy that you want to play that guy, is he an essential part of your plan to set up Akira and Thorn?"

I blinked. 'How does he know about the plan?' "No. Feel free to substitute someone else for him if you think you know someone who can do a better job. The only really important parts are Danny, Sandy, Rizzo, Kenickie, the Pink Ladies, and the T-Birds."

"Great. You're still auditioning then?" He cocked his head to the side and gazed at me with interest.

I shifted uneasily under his gaze. "No. I'm locking myself in this room and not coming out until the day I die. I'm not eating, not sleeping, and certainly not trying out for a musical."

"Is that so? Well if you're not sleeping, could I use the bed? I'm exhausted from my little quest, and I really don't feel like going home right now." It took me a moment to realize he was serious.

"Get your own bed." I glared. "I'm not about to let the Devil sleep in mine."

"Oh come on Hoshi; you're not gonna use it, and I don't have to sleep in it, I could just nap. What do you say?" He looked at me with puppy dog eyes and I found it extremely hard to refuse.

"NO. Leave me alone!" I fought the urge to have pity on him.

"But you let me sit on your lap earlier." He whined.

I blushed. "Wh-when did this happen!"

"When I was a cat. You had no problem with me then, and now all I want is a place to spend the night. I'm really not like the other guys you know; all I want is the bed. I personally don't care whether you're in it or not." He transformed into a cat and curled up on top of my pillow.

I picked him up by the scruff of his neck and tossed him to the floor (gently. Not too hard, but not too soft either). He landed on his feet and let out a wounded hiss. I glared at him as he made eyes at me from where he sat on the floor. "No Lucifer." I pulled the cover over my head and shut my eyes.

The bed shook only slightly as Lucifer jumped from the floor onto the bed and curled up on top of my stomach. I sat up and tossed him to the floor again. "Stop it. Leave me alone; will you?"

He sat on the floor looking like I had injured him. I ignored him and lay back down in bed. Lucifer jumped up again and lay back down on my stomach. I threw him to the floor once more. "Cut it out!"

He looked up at me with a dying expression on his cat face. I lay down and waited for him to jump back up. Sure enough, he got back on the bed, but this time when he lay down on my stomach he transformed back into his humanoid form, pinning me under him.

I screamed and tried to force him off of me. "Lucifer you bastard! Get off of me this instant! I won't sleep with you! I won't, I won't, I woooooooon't!"

He restrained my arms with his hands and held the rest of my body down with his own. He laid his head on my chest, using it as an overstuffed pillow. "Shut up Hoshi; I'm trying to sleep."

His rude, straightforward reply stunned me into silence. I ceased flailing my arms and kicking my legs. I completely froze my thrashing body and blinked twice. "You…really don't want to sleep with me, do you?"

"No." He jadedly responded. "I just want to rest for awhile. I've got a lot of work to do for you tomorrow, and I need to be rested. I don't have the energy right now to do anything other than sleep."

"You're gay, aren't you?"

He sat up and looked down at me like I had another head. "WHAT?"

I repeated it. "You. You're gay. As in you like guys."

"NO! I know what gay means. I meant: what ever gave you that idea?" He was wide awake now.

"You're thousands of years old and yet you've never slept with a woman. Also, you don't seem to have any interest in me at all. Any normal man lying on top of me while I'm wearing this would have wandering hands, but you don't even seem turned on in the least bit." I looked up at him as he gaped down at me. "Plus that one day you visited the Asakura Mansion, I saw you kissing my father dressed as Ivy. You're a cross dresser too, aren't you?"

"I wasn't—I mean—That is to say—I really—I'm not gay, and I'm not a cross dresser!" He looked kind of cute, like a dog, when he was offended. It was amusing.

"Prove it." I smiled wickedly. I was just teasing him; I really didn't expect him to do anything but pout, so what he did next shocked me into a moment of stunned speechlessness. Not that I could have spoken if I wanted to, mind you; it's kind of hard to speak when someone is pressing their lips to yours.

For the first time in years a kiss made me feel alive. He lit me on fire and awoke a sort of passion within me. I had only had one kiss like this before: my first kiss. When I was young and met Damien. He had stolen my first kiss. It was the only other _real_ kiss I had ever had. All the rest were paid for by customers or given away as a tease. I wasn't being paid for this kiss, and it made me feel human. Unlike what I felt when I was working, this felt real and I could feel sparks under the surface. This kiss wasn't like the one he had stolen earlier that day either. That kiss had been forced and aggressive, this one was entirely different.

START LIMISH PART!

He took my lips slowly and parted them gently with his tongue. Lucifer gradually fed his tongue into my mouth and took his sweet time tasting me. Not that I minded. The longer he drew it out, the more intense and passionate it got. He leisurely slid his hand behind my head and pushed us closer together, deepening the kiss. My arms instinctively wrapped around his neck. Our tongues played out a fierce battle for what seemed like ages, and I felt a pain like his tongue was made of acid, slowly melting my mouth away. It was a pleasurable pain though and I wanted more. I hadn't been so drunk on a kiss since my first, and I was overjoyed that I could still have an intimate attraction to someone.

He pulled away and smirked, but still kept his arms around me. "Maybe I was just waiting for the right woman. That enough to convince you I'm not gay?"

"Any guy can kiss regardless of sexual orientation. I won't believe you until you actually sleep with someone." I muttered softly against the skin of his neck.

"God Hosh, you're hard to please." He murmured.

"What do you say, instead of having me kill Thorn, why don't you sleep with me?" I ran a hand seductively up and down his thigh.

He sharply inhaled as my fingers caressed places they shouldn't have. "I-it doesn't w-work like that."

"But can't you make it work like that for _me_?" I undid the buttons of his shirt and quickly rid him of the unnecessary garment. This was my only chance to save my little sister, and suddenly sleeping with the devil didn't seem so bad. "Say yes?"

"Hoshi, no—" I forced his mouth back to mine and he offered little resistance. For a while he seemed lost under my spell, but eventually his senses returned and he realized what he was doing. "Hoshi. I can't. I'm bound by contract. YOUR contract. I have to set up the cast of the musical for you, and in return you have to do me a favor. NOT a sexual favor as plainly stated by yourself. I can't—OH MY GOD."

I had grabbed hold of the inside of his thigh hard—a technique that could bring any man to his hands and knees, at my mercy. He didn't bother resisting any longer. His hands freely roamed my body, sneaking expertly under my thin silky garments and working their magic on me. Somewhere around that point I completely lost myself in what was going on. I could no longer tell if I was doing it for my sister or for myself or maybe…for him? It didn't matter; I didn't care anymore.

END LIMISH PART!

And that's how they found us. Hao and Ivy had come in to check on me around midnight, and they found Lucifer on top of me with his hands up my shirt and his tongue halfway down my throat. Where my hands were was no better: one combing through his hair, somehow still sort of in its ponytail, and the other down his unzipped pants.

Ivy let out a startled gasp and Hao just stood gaping. None of us really registered what was happening. We must have sat there for hours just staring at each other, trying to convince ourselves that this was not really happening. Everything seemed to happen in slow motion as Lucifer disappeared in a quick puff of smoke, leaving behind his shirt on the bedroom floor and ponytail holder that had gotten caught on my hand.

My parents stared at me as I straightened my hair and clothing. "Don't ask." I mumbled, laying back down in bed and pulling the covers over me.

Ivy was at my side in a heartbeat. "I'm kind of afraid I have to. What's going on? I want the whole story."

"I can't tell you." It was the truth. I couldn't tell them anything because of the spell Lucifer had on me.

My father sat down on the bed beside Ivy. "I'd like to have it first hand from you before I go hunt down Lucifer and mutilate him."

I got out from under the covers and looked him straight in the eye. "I mean it. I really can't tell you."

"She's telling the truth." All eyes looked to my desk where Lucifer had reappeared. He smiled sheepishly. "Forgot my shirt."

"YOU!" Hao shot straight up and looked ready to murder the poor demon.

"Hear me out!" Lucifer raised his hands defensively. "Hoshi and I have a deal."

"So that's why she can't tell us…" My mother muttered under her breath while she rubbed my back gently, comforting me.

Hao turned to me. "Is this true?"

I nodded, just once. It was enough. I lowered my head and gazed at my entwining fingers in my lap.

My father didn't sound angry, but the tone of his voice was decidedly disappointed. Disappointed was far worse than angry. "What were you thinking, making a deal with the Devil?"

"I wasn't thinking." I muttered tonelessly.

"You had to have been thinking something. You're not stupid like you pretend to be Hoshi. I want to know why you did what you did." I couldn't argue with him when he used that tone.

I tried my best to explain my motives. "Well…I thought that maybe…Well I saw how Anna and Valerie bossed him around. I thought that he was sort of a pushover when it came to women. I thought that maybe…I could…could control him like they did? I underestimated him…and pretty badly too." I wiped the tear from my eye before it had a chance to fall.

Hao glanced at Ivy. "You and Anna have had some dealings with him?"

Ivy nodded. "He's been trying to make a deal with me for ages. Trying to get me to marry him if he gives me a new body. I don't know how Anna is involved with him though. Anna bosses everyone around, so it wouldn't surprise me if she had some sort of something to do with him."

"Could we stop talking about me like I'm not in the room?" Lucifer refocused the attention on himself.

Hao glared at the demon and Lucifer looked sorry that he had said anything. "So Lucy, what kind of deal do you have with my daughter?"

Lucifer smiled smugly. "Sorry. That matter is between me and my client."

My father glared again.

Lucifer rethought his former statement. "But of course, she's a minor, and you are her parents, so I guess it would be okay if I told you. I do a favor for her, and then she does a favor for me. No sex, no selling her soul. Just one favor both ways. What you just walked in on was her trying to renegotiate the deal because she didn't like what I had asked her to do. She tried to seduce me into sleeping with her instead."

"Somehow I don't believe you." The fire shaman glared menacingly at the Devil.

Lucifer opened his mouth to say something, but I cut him off. "It's true. I was trying to make him go back on what we had agreed upon. I was trying to seduce him." I didn't bother raising my head to see the shock and disappointment on both Hao and Ivy's faces.

"Just what was this favor you were having her do Lucifer?" My mother investigated.

"I…well you see..." Lucifer looked down at me sympathetically with a hint of fondness in his eyes. "It doesn't matter what I was going to have her do because…well, in light of recent events…I…I'm reconsidering what I'm asking of her. So you can stop blatantly throwing yourself at me Hoshi." Lucifer slipped his shirt back on and started buttoning it.

"What are you going to have her do now?" Ivy was still very distrusting of the king of Hell.

Lucifer looked up, stopping in mid-button. "I haven't decided yet. I'll probably have her do my laundry or something stupid like that. She's no fun really with all the restrictions she put on what I could ask her to do." Lucifer adopted a sarcastic tone. "Oh, I know! I'll have her do my Christmas shopping! I do hate those crowded malls, and those stupid fat men in red suits. Oh, here's another idea! I'll have her cook for me sometimes. I never could make a good lunchtime meal. Or maybe I should have her take messages for me? I am a bit short on good secretaries. Seriously, I have little use for a slut like her other than what she said was off limits. I'll get around to assigning her something trivial later."

I tried hard to fight back tears. Did he really think so little of me?

My father's voice broke into my train of thoughts. "All right then. Now that that's settled, get out of here Lucifer before I have to kill you. And remember, if I ever see you even looking at one of my daughters again—"

"—Yeah, yeah. Make sure your daughters keep their hands to themselves. I have no interest in the slut, but the other one…so naïve and innocent…" I buried my face in my mother's chest so I wouldn't have to watch him insult me and salivate over my younger twin.

"OUT." Hao rose to escort Lucifer off the premises.

The devil backed up. "I'm going. I'm going." And he disappeared. Not in a cloud of smoke or flames as usual though. He simply was there one second and not the next.

My parents let out a collective sigh and shared a look. I sobbed into my pillow, ignoring the both of them.

"Hoshi?" Ivy rubbed my back soothingly.

"Is there anything we can do?" Hao took his place on the bed next to me to Ivy's right.

"Please just leave me alone." My voice was muffled by the pillow, but I knew they could hear.

They shared another look, silently discussing what to do. Ivy chewed lightly on the inside of her cheek and Hao bit his lip uncertainly. Neither had had much experience with upset teenagers despite the fact that they had once both been in similar positions.

"Night honey." Ivy nuzzled me lightly and stood to leave.

"We love you." Hao kissed the top of my head and followed Ivy out. I could tell that they had both accepted the fact that Hao knew that 'Valerie' was really Ivy even if Hao still referred to her as 'Valerie' and neither of them had discussed her true identity out loud.

The door clicked lightly shut and I was left alone to cry myself to sleep again. Or so I thought.

"Finally. I didn't think they would ever leave." Lucifer slowly fazed into view. He hadn't really left at all; he had just turned invisible and waited for my parents to leave. He finished buttoning his shirt and zipping his pants. He slipped back on his shoes and smoothed the wrinkles and creases in his outfit. "What's the matter?" He raised an eyebrow inquisitively at me.

I stifled a sob. "It's nothing. I don't feel well, that's all. What you said about reconsidering having me murder Thorn, were you telling the truth or were you just lying to me again?"

The look on his face told me that he didn't believe for a second my line about not feeling well, but he didn't say anything to counter it. "I was telling the truth. You're off the hook. I'll think of something else for you to do. Now, what's really bothering you? Don't try and lie; I'll just keep asking."

I lay down and pulled the covers close around me once again. "I don't feel well."

"What did I say about lying?" He sat down where my mother had just been minutes ago.

"Leave me alone Lucifer. I said I don't feel well, and it's the truth." My tone turned icy and sharp.

"Fine. If you don't want to tell me Hosh, it's your business." He smirked and got up to unlock the window.

I sat up in bed and scowled. "Don't call me that! I've told you over a thousand times!"

He smiled sweetly. "I know. I only do it because you hate it so much. Good night Hoshi!" He kissed me quickly on the cheek.

"How can you be two different people like that?" My jaw had dropped when he kissed me, and the words easily slid out of my open mouth.

He blinked and stared at me. "What do you mean?"

Before I could shut my mouth and pretend that it was nothing, more words and sentences spilled out in succession. "I mean that you're completely different when we're alone and when my parents, especially my dad, are here. Whenever other people are watching you insult me and berate me like I'm a dirty piece of laundry or something, but when it's just me you're...I don't know. I don't know what I'm talking about. Goodnight demon." Again I pulled the cover over my head.

We had both said our goodnights, but he didn't leave. He sat on top of my desk and stared at me. I closed my eyes and pretended to be asleep, but of course I was wide awake even at that late time of night. I couldn't sleep while his eyes watched me like a hungry wolf on the prowl. I could feel the heat of his eyes on me even if I couldn't see in the dark. It was unnerving.

I let out a groan. "Will you either say something or go away?"

"What do you want me to say?" He looked solemn-faced at me.

"I don't know! If you don't have anything to say, then go away." I kept my eyes shut, feeling uncomfortable with his intense gaze.

"But I don't want to go home yet. My dad left us, my mom is dead and gone to Heaven, and my older brother abuses me. I'd much rather stay here with you. What do you say to a sleep over?" He smiled, gently teasing.

"Don't try and make me feel sorry for you." I tried to tune him out.

"All right. I won't. I'll be going then." He unlocked the window and prepared to exit. "If I didn't insult and berate you in public, then someone might figure out that I like you like you, and that's an easily exploited weakness. Sweet dreams, Hosh." He winked and disappeared in his patented puff of red smoke. He left my window open flapping in the wind.

I stared after him for the longest time, unblinking. 'Did he just say…No. No, he didn't mean it. Not like that. Don't be trick so easily; he's like his brother. Exactly like his brother. The one who ruined your life and took everything away from you. Don't let yourself be tricked again.' I got up, closed the window, and got back in bed without another thought of that lying bastard Lucifer.

But actions speak louder than words or thoughts, and I kept the ponytail holder that he had left behind clenched tightly in my hand the whole night. I even wore it to school the next day for luck with the Grease auditions. Not that I needed luck with the devil himself rigging the whole thing in my favor.

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Mikau: -Smirks- So. My chapters seem to get longer and longer. You know, I think I almost have as many words as I,SR. Though this might be 50,000 or so words shorter. I,SR had so many more chapters, but the chapters were so much smaller. Well, I can safely say that TBT will probably be just as long (word wise) as I,SR. Maybe longer. Who knows? I could be completely wrong. I always am, so I should just stop making predictions. I hope you all enjoyed the chapter. Thank you for all the wonderful reviews!

Thanks To: GothicShamaness13, Untitled Sorrow, Touch of the Wind, MiStraLL, Andrea Nefisto, demon thing, MaiValentinefan, kari tao (ren's little sister), DarkPisces33, KaZuYa MiNeKuRa, yo wuz up, souloverdrive, HAO-Addictive, and Winged-Wolf01.

To GothicShamaness13: Actually, apprising means explaining. An explaining look. Though 'appraising' does make sense too. Also, miniscule is the Old English, nonstandard spelling of minuscule. Both are acceptable. Now stop it. Once was funny, but twice is blatantly insulting.

To Andrea Nefisto: -Smirks- Yes, Botan from YuYu Hakusho. I looooove that show, and Botan is too fun not to use. Can you blame me?

To demon thing: Thanks for the predictions as always. No comment on whether or not they're right or wrong.

To Winged-Wolf01: Really? I didn't know you had a story with a Thorn in it. I must check it out when I have a free moment sometime. Originally I was going to call Thorn 'Fern', but then 'Fern' turned into a completely different character (when/if I ever get my Façade fic up, Fern will make an appearance there). About two years ago when I was in 8th grade I was working on this short story with the main character named Thorn, but that died shortly after I thought it up. So I hadn't used the name Thorn yet, and whenever I came up with this story back before I even started work on I,SR in March, I had the girl named Thorn. I really like nature names (ex: Ivy, Fern, Thorn), and my brother got me this big book of nature names a few years back (in 8th grade). I got the name while I was flipping through there. It's pretty cool that we both have a character with that name though. Great minds think alike I guess. Now what were you talking about, about the email? You mean Thorn's email? TornByThorns at SK dot com? Or the other one, ThornsOfABrairRose? I was trying to make a play on Thorn's name, but I'm still not happy with it. I really should check your story out because if I read it and they're similar I might have to be concerned…

PLEASE REVIEW!


	34. Fixed Auditions

Mikau: Hello! I'm up later than I should be to update this. I really should get to bed…Oh well!

**_Disclaimer:_** I don't own Shaman King.

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Fixed Auditions

I got up early and took a hot shower. I went over the song I was planning on using for the audition as the pounding water drowned out my voice. No matter how many times I went over it I was still nervous. I was an anxious person by nature, and all of the coaching in the world from my sister and all the practicing I had done couldn't subdue my nerves.

Hoshi had told me over a thousand times, "Thorn, God you're such a worry-wart. You'll be fine." That had helped a little, but my confidence in her words had been shaken when the day before auditions my sister had unexpectedly demanded that I stay away from her. She had yelled and screamed and had a huge hissy fit, locking herself in her room and refusing to come out.

I felt awful. What had I done to make my own sister hate me so, so that she didn't even care to see my face? Valerie and my father had tried to comfort me, but it did little good. Now when the morning of auditions came around, I was up early, showered, dressed, and ready to go to school. My sister was up as well, just as early.

I bumped into her in the hall on the way down to the kitchen. I lowered my gaze and stared at my feet, stepping out of her way to let her go down the stairs first.

She looked me over suspiciously. Hoshi reached out with one hand. I thought she was going to slap me, but she wordlessly straightened the red tie on my uniform and smoothed the wrinkles in my crisp, white shirt. She rolled the waistband of my skirt once to make it shorter, stepped back, and examined her work. My sister's lips pursed in dissatisfaction. She undid the top button of my shirt to show more skin. I looked up at her scandalized. I opened my mouth to protest, but she shushed me with a warning, "Quiet."

I nodded and closed my mouth. My gaze returned to the floor.

"Look up." I obeyed the order and looked her in the eyes. The bright azure orbs proved to be a bit too much for me to handle, so I compensated, opting to look just to the side of her head instead of meeting her gaze straight on.

Hoshi played with a few strands of my dull brown hair. I had dried and brushed it after I showered, but I had left it down, not bothering to tie it back or do anything to keep it out of my face.

My sister removed two ponytail holders from her hair. She had two: one plain one for function, and the other to hid the plain one for fashion. The fashionable one that she wore that day, I had never seen before. It was a small red band with tiny sparkling diamonds somehow woven into the material. In miniscule stitches the object detailed a scene of angels. I could just barely make out the design with my 20/20 vision. I couldn't imagine how someone had made that detailed pattern on such a small trinket like a hair tie. Hoshi turned me around and put my chest-length hair up in a high, waterfall-like ponytail using the functional hair tie. The fashionable one with the angel scene, she put back in her own hair.

She looked me over one last time before deciding she was completely satisfied with my appearance. "Come on, let's get you some breakfast." She pulled me down the stairs and into the kitchen. Valerie and Hao were already up and eating breakfast when we got there. They looked up as Hoshi handed me an apple, a cup of yogurt, and a cup of milk. I sat down at the table while she put bread in the toaster.

Valerie looked at me curiously and slowly took the spoon out of her mouth, wrapping her tongue around it and licking with a suggestive glance in my father's direction.

Hao threw a death glare across the table at Valerie. "Oh stop it, children are present."

"I'm not doing anything." She whined innocently, but winked playfully back at him.

It wasn't hard to guess that they had been trying to seduce each other with suggestive gestures and looks before Hoshi and I had arrived. I rolled my eyes.

Hoshi set a plate of toast down in front of me. "Thorn, eat up. Valerie and Hao, no sex at the table."

"I have no interest in sleeping with _that,_ thank you." Hao pretended to look offended.

Valerie smiled and returned to her yogurt. "Well you seem to have no problem sleeping with any other woman in Japan. And I do mean _any _other Talk about low standards."

"Bite me." Hao returned the same sickly sweet smile and bit into his apple.

"You want me; admit it." The silver-haired vixen returned the volley.

Hoshi seated herself across the table from me and intervened before Val and Hao had a major falling out. "Will the two of you stop acting like hormone-driven teenagers and just sleep together already? Your picky little cat fights are annoying."

"Not my fault she doesn't put out." Hao muttered.

"Oh shut up." Valerie licked at her spoon again.

"Stop it!" Hao gripped the edge of the table tightly.

"What?" She licked the spoon again, slowly pulling it out of her mouth. "This?"

"Yes that." Hao sulked. He stood and walked toward the door. "I'm going to go get drunk."

The clouds opened up and it started raining a flood from the sky. Valerie smirked evilly at my father. "Try driving in that."

Hao returned the evil smirk. "Who needs to drive? I can just poof over to my house. I'm sure Mari and Macchi have missed me, and they aren't prude like you. They're not afraid to have a little fun with a man every once in awhile."

The silver-haired woman rose to her feet and advance upon my father. They stood staring each other down, mere inches apart. "You wouldn't."

"I would." Tension built as they stared at each other. "So…do you want to go catch a movie?"

Valerie snapped her fingers and the rain stopped. "Sure!" She grabbed a jacket and they were off on their spur-of-the-moment date.

I shook my head at their bizarreness. "Those two…"

My sister smiled as she chuckled to herself. "I wonder if they were like that when they were married?"

"They were married!" I looked startled at this turn of events. "When was this? Before or after Ivy?"

Hoshi looked puzzled, but just for a second. "Uh…" she looked up and to the left. She was fishing in her head for a lie to regurgitate for me. "I meant mom and dad. When mom and dad were married were they as in love as Val and Hao are?" She looked uncomfortably down at her plate of toast and pears.

"I don't think Ivy ever really loved him. Not like Valerie does….They're going to get married. I can tell. Even though they fight all the time; it just proves how in love they are." I picked up a piece of bread and buttered it.

"Sometimes I wonder if you hear yourself when you talk." Hoshi bit into her own piece of toast.

"Why do you say that?" I stopped in mid swipe with my butter knife.

"You're spouting nonsense. Val is leaving soon; they're not going to get married. She's only staying a few more months." I sat in stunned silence as my sister went on to explain that Valerie and Hao were having so many fights because he wanted to sleep with her before she left, but she didn't see the point in having a one night stand with him. I nodded an accepted the facts.

"Don't let it get you down Thorn. You have the audition today, and that guy you like is sure to be there. What was his name again? Lian? Come on, smile for me. It's not like Val and Hao's relationship means everything. They're enjoying her last months here, so…you should just be happy for them and the time they have left. Look, now I'm the one spouting bloody nonsense." She rolled her eyes and cleared away the dishes that Hao and Valerie had left behind.

I nodded and faked a smile for her sake. "Yeah, Lian will be there so I get to see him tonight. Hey, do you think he's coming for the big costume party on Friday in honor of Hao and Yoh's birthday? Practically the whole town is invited, so he should be there."

"Oh he'll be there all right. In costume and ready to party. Anna already sent out the invites, and I saw him on the list." My sister smirked in the way that she did when her schemes and plots were going according to plan.

"Hoshi, why do I feel you're using me again? You always do this to me." I moped.

"I'm not using you." She feinted being offended.

"You are. You're plotting something again, and you're using me as one of the pawns on your chess board." I finished my breakfast and got ready to go to school.

"You have no proof that I'm plotting something. I'm simply happy that you finally fell in love with the right guy." Her words made me give pause.

"Do you really think he's the right guy? I mean, _the_ guy." I looked to my older sister for advice.

She nodded. "He's the one all right. I'm not using you; I'm simply manipulating the directions you take. It's all for you anyway, so I don't understand why you're so upset. Just remember everything I do is in order to secure your future with the right guy. I'm always looking out for you, little sister." She winked happily and looked me over one last time before seeing me to the door. "Have fun at school."

"Aren't you coming? You're auditioning too, and you have school." I stared blandly at her, confused.

"I'm skipping first and second period. I have to take care of some things, and I'll only be missing Religion and Science." She practically pushed me out the door. "I'll see you at auditions after school."

"But you love Science!" I called back as the door closed in my face. My sister was acting weird…weirder than usual.

I quickly shut the door in Thorn's face. "I have more important things to deal with than Science right now….You can come out Lucifer."

The Devil became visible with my invitation. "Skipping Religion class to hang out with the devil? Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. Hoshi, you're such a bad girl."

"Shut it." I glared as he sat down at the kitchen table.

"So, how'd you sleep last night? Dream about me?" He smiled fondly and I had to turn away from him so he wouldn't see my blush. Whether voluntarily or not, I had had a dream about him and what might have happened if my parents hadn't walked in on us when they did.

"We didn't sleep together, so you have no right to ask me that like we did." I composed myself, turned, and glared at him, setting down an extra plate of toast in front of him.

"Yeah, yeah, but you still make me breakfast…" He thanked me and happily ate. "I think someone wishes her parents hadn't interrupted."

That merited a bullet to the brain, but I settled with decking him instead. I balled my fist and nailed him in the jaw, knocking him to the floor.

He looked up at me in shock, lightly holding his cheek, and I caught a random thought as it flew through his mind. _"You wouldn't know what love was if it socked you one."_

I looked down at him unblinking. Where had that thought come from? His mind was peculiarly empty of thoughts except that one. Our eyes met and I had to look away. My heart hurt and butterflies ran rampant in my stomach. I pushed all other thoughts aside and told myself I was nervous about the auditions. I didn't want to consider any alternative reasons.

My breaking the eye contact seemed to break the immobility spell cast on him, and Lucifer got back to his feet and returned to his breakfast. "Uh…so…how did you know I was here? Ivy, Hao, and Thorn didn't seem to notice me."

"I could sense you. Ivy and Hao were too preoccupied with each other, and Thorn is too naïve to sense such potent things as pure evil." I started washing dishes just to keep myself busy, but still be able to monitor him, keeping watch out of the corner of my eye.

'Do you really think I'm _pure_ evil Hoshi?' It was soft, but I could hear a small part of his thoughts. He sounded hurt, but when he spoke out loud he was fine. Cheerful even. "Thorn's innocent and naïve like Ivy was when she was younger…"

I nodded at his statement. "Yes. She's still such a little girl."

"I don't know what I see in Thorn. I really do prefer more mature women." I swear he glanced up at me.

I jerked my head slightly in his direction. "Oh really? You're still just a kid yourself. You have no experience with 'women'. Yet the little boy still prefers women over little girls." I couldn't resist the chance to tease him.

"I have a little experience…with Ivy. And then a little with you too." He looked me over, not quite checking me out, but definitely making evaluations.

"So I'm a woman by your standards?" I didn't know where this conversation was going, but I let it continue, curious of what he would say.

"You're obviously not a girl. You're definitely more somber than a normal girl your age. You know what you're doing with men, and you're not the least bit naïve. You know exactly how the world works, and you know how to get by in it. You don't harbor girlish fantasies of men either." He smiled softly at me, not knowing how wrong he was.

'What do you know about my fantasies? How do you know that I'm not having one right now about you?' "You really know nothing about me." I looked solemnly at him for a moment before turning back to the dishes I had been neglecting.

"Because you won't let me get to know you. You have a problem with opening up to people because you don't know who you really are. You have too many different personalities and lives for each one that you're losing sight of who Hoshi truly is." I stared stupidly as he quickly unraveled the very thread of who I was and observed it, commenting with full knowledge of the situation that it would have taken a normal person years to pick up.

"Don't look so shocked." He smiled again at me. "I wanted to be a psychiatrist or psychologist, one of the two I could never keep them straight and I studied both. I went to a really great college and studied for a few years under the pseudonym 'Lucifer Richardson'. Then my brother forced this job on me…my dream kind of died there…I could have helped a lot of people…Oh well. I guess torturing the souls of the damned isn't so bad, but I'm just not any good at it. I don't enjoy my job either…."

I stared at him, but saw only myself. I had wanted to be a doctor. His stupid brother killed that dream for me. 'I could have helped a lot of people…' I closed my eyes and tried to shut out the pain. "What are you doing here Lucifer." Not a question, but a demand: 'tell me now'.

"Hmm?" He had been rambling and hadn't quite heard. "What do you mean 'what am I doing here?'?" Maybe I was wrong and he had heard me… "You _wanted _me to come. I felt it." I was about to question him, but he anticipated the question and answered it anyway. "Remember when we sealed the deal with your blood?" My fingers absently traced his mark on my lip. "And you're aware of the spell I have on you so that you can't talk about our deal with anyone? Well, when I was taking your blood I injected some of my own life force into you. We're sort of connected." He smiled sheepishly. "I felt that you wanted to speak with me. I assumed it was about today."

He was quiet and waited for me to explain. "Yes…well…no. Not about today…." I sat down and handed him a cup of coffee. I sipped my own cup nervously, not sure if I could trust him with what I had in mind. I was more scared than I had ever been before, but somehow I felt that it would be okay and he wouldn't turn on me. "I might have another job for you."

He looked at me like I was crazy. "You want to make another deal with me? Isn't one enough?"

"Just add it to my tab." I rolled my eyes at his blabbering. "This is an integral part of my plan, and I need to ask someone who I trust completely…"

He stared wide-eyed at me, mouth slightly open. 'She…trusts me?'

"Unfortunately, I don't have anyone like that, so I have to ask this of you."

His face fell slightly. 'Oh. Fine then use me as your backup plan. See if I care.'

I informed him of my plans and his mouth dropped to the floor. He really did think I was crazy. "HOSHI! You're asking me to do something illegal!"

"No, no! I don't want you to actually do anything to her. It's just sort of a set up, so you'll make it look like you are, but you really won't. I've got it all worked out; I just need you to help me out with this." I looked up at him with pleading eyes.

He looked at me like he was considering, but then instead of a yes or no answer, he said, "How do you know I won't actually do anything? I am the devil after all."

'Okay, leap of faith time…' "You know, you keep saying that, but I just don't believe that you're really all that bad. I guess I trust you more than I like to admit. What do you say? Do we have another deal?" I stood and cleared the rest of the dishes from the table.

He stood as well and helped take the dishes over to the sink. He set down the plates and smiled. "Is your father going to be home anytime soon?"

"No. Why do you a—mm!" His lips gently took mine and his arms held me like I was made of glass. I melted into him and gladly joined in the kiss. Lucifer's lips messaged mine tenderly and I nearly died of pleasure. I moaned softly as he pulled away and smiled. "Don't you need my blood?" I made up any excuse to have his lips back on mine. I was desperate.

"You're right. I almost forgot." He grinned wickedly and licked my neck expertly like a vampire ready to feast. I griped his shoulders and closed my eyes as he bit the side of my neck hard several times. I knew it would leave a mark for sure, but he didn't draw any blood. "You know, I think I would prefer some more of the blood from your lips. You don't mind, do you?"

"No, go ahead." He was teasing me, but in truth I didn't care. He was the only man that made me feel something when he kissed me. I didn't care that he was the devil. I made up my mind then that my body was his to do as he wished with, but I wouldn't give him my heart. No man would ever be able to win that. The only time I had given my heart to someone, they had broken it, and I had sworn never to fall in love again. Damien had been my one and only love, and no one would ever be able to make me love again. Let him have my body; it was only a tool anyway. Other men used it constantly, so why should this one be any different?

He quickly reopened the wound on my lip and lapped up more of my blood. Just as he had before, he licked the cut and it healed. He backed away awkwardly and smiled. "Uh, hey, you wouldn't have happened to have found a hair tie in your room this morning, did you?"

I was slightly disappointed when his hands left my body. "No, why?" I lied.

"Oh. No reason." Just then I noticed that instead of having his hair up in a ponytail like he usually did, he had left it hanging down. It came all the way down to the middle of his back; it wasn't quite as long as my father's waist-length hair though. "It was sort of a gift, and I…well I'd really like it back if you find it."

"Here." I pulled it out of my hair and offered it to him. "It fell out when you left in such a hurry last night."

He took it and smiled, looking relieved like he had regained some precious treasure. "Thank you. I thought I'd lost it for good."

"Who gave it to you?" I ran my fingers through my own waist-length hair, trying to tame it.

"My mother. She's up in Heaven, and I'm not going to be seeing her again." He admired the little trinket.

"What's _your_ mother doing in Heaven?" I asked quizzically.

He looked mildly offended, but explained it to me anyway. "I wasn't always the Devil, you know. I was an angel once, and I lived in Heaven with the others. She gave it to me before they threw me out. I still remember the way she looked at me…like she knew I didn't do it…like she still loved me even if everyone told her I had done some pretty terrible things and she had no proof that I was innocent." Lucifer smiled again as some of the diamonds in the band caught light and sparkled.

"Just like how my dad still loves me even though I'm…the way I am…" I smiled sadly and watched the light refract off the diamonds.

He offered it back to me. "You should have it, as a gift."

"Lucifer…I can't…" I tried to refuse, but he snapped his fingers and I found I could no longer move my body. "What the…?"

He smirked and pulled my hair up in a high ponytail like I had had it before. "When we made our latest deal, you didn't put me on any restrictions like you did the first time. I decided it might be fun to be able to control you whenever I have need." The menacing smile turn to a soft one. "Good luck with auditions. And don't lose that hair band. It's very important to me." He stole a quick kiss on my cheek and disappeared.

I decided then and there that he was no different than any other man. He could have my body if he wanted, but I would never give him my heart. If I ever did give my heart to him I might not be able to get it back. He was just too wonderful, and I couldn't bear it if he broke my heart too. It was safer not to admit being hopelessly in love with him. I told myself it was just lust, but, truly, how long can one lie to oneself?

Truly, auditions weren't as bad as I had thought they would be. You went in, filled out some papers, sang a part of a song, read from some of the script, and then they taught you a dance and you had to do that for them. It wasn't too complicated, and they just wanted to see what all you could do. The directors were nice and they smiled and were supportive. It wasn't the hell that had been plaguing my nightmares for countless nights beforehand.

Hana, Ivory, and Hoshi auditioned too, and they all did a really good job. I even have to admit (grudgingly) that Akira did well too. I had to read a scene with him though. The drive-in scene of all scenes! It was almost unbearable having him hit on me even if we were just acting. I got to slap him though. I tried not to slap him too hard, but my hatred of him sort of took over and I smacked him a little harder than I should have. Somehow, I think Hoshi arranged for him to be partnered with me, though I can't imagine why. Just that morning hadn't she said that she was trying to set me up with Lian?

Speaking of Lian, I didn't see him at the auditions. I was disappointed to say the least. I had been looking forward to seeing him for days, and it looked like I would have to wait for the costume party to see him again. I made up my mind to email him when I got home later that night.

Hana drove everyone home since we were all staying at the En Inn until after the party from Friday night to Sunday night. The car was cramped and somehow I ended up sitting smashed up against Akira in the back seat. Again, I couldn't help but feel that Hoshi was setting me up.

Speaking of my sister, she seemed depressed. I tried to talk with her about it, but she waved me off saying it was nothing. I made the mistake of noticing a small cut on her bottom lip, and she nearly bit my head off for mentioning it. I gave up on talking to my sister and instead tried to have a civil conversation with Akira since I was almost sitting on his lap.

We talked about nothing of much consequence, so I really don't remember one of our only documented 'civil conversations'. I remember he complimented me on my voice though. That was the only thing really that stood out in the blur of our polite conversing. I really wanted to fight with him. He was so much fun to berate and attack; it made me feel alive. Normally I was a meek-ish, modest, conservative person, but he brought out the scorching flames and burning embers inside of me. I loved a good fight with him.

When we arrived home, I waved a quick hello to the people gathered for dinner in the dinning-room, but skipped dinner to run to my room and get online to chat with Lian. I plopped down on my bed and grabbed my laptop.

_"Hey Lian! It's Hoshi. I just got back from auditions for Grease. I think I did pretty well, but I didn't see you there. I was really looking forward to seeing you."-TornByThorns_

Within seconds an answer appeared: _"Hey Hoshi, my darling. I've missed you. I just got home too. Well actually, I'm not staying at my house right now, I'm at a friend's, but let's not get into that. I was there the whole time too, so I can't imagine how our paths didn't cross. Oh well. I was looking forward to seeing you too. I've been waiting for months to see you in person without that mask of yours on. I can't wait until I finally get to see the face of the woman I've been dreaming about since the night we met." –ChineseShadowBoy33_

I could feel a heated blush rising on my cheeks. He made me feel so dizzy and drunk and on top of the world at the same time. I positively loved him. I couldn't suppress a lovesick smile as I typed back: _"Oh stop it! You're making me blush like crazy! You spoil me with your compliments and sweet words. I swear if you break my heart…" –TBT_

He hastily replied. _"You know I wouldn't. I couldn't. I love you too much. Hey, the Asakuras are having a huge three day party this weekend; are you going to be there?" –CSB33_

I clutched my throw pillow to my chest. _"Yes, definitely. Will I see you there?" –TBT_

Someone from downstairs yelled "AKIRA! GET DOWN HERE AND EAT DINNER!" I tuned them out and waited for my Prince Charming's reply.

_"Yeah. I'll be there. I have to go eat dinner. I'll see you this weekend. I love you." –ChineseShadowBoy33_

I blinked remembering the voice calling for Akira. 'Weird.' _"Okay. I love you too." –TornByThorns_

"THORN, YOU TOO! DINNER!"

I raced out of my room and down the hall, accidentally bumping into Akira as he rounded a corner. We both ended up on the ground glaring at each other.

"Watch it Asakura! Sorry—Thorn." He openly mocked me. "I swear, you are the most annoying…"

"Oh shove it Tao. You're no better." I got to my feet and started walking away from him.

He sent empty threats down the hall after me. "One of these days I'm going to ring that scrawny little neck of yours."

"Oh, now I'm, like, so scared." I rolled my eyes and imitated my sister's fake accent.

"You cheeky little—"

"THORN! AKIRA! DINNER! NOW!" Our little fight had to be postponed. We raced down the steps and into the dinning room. I won.

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Mikau: Wow…I really wrote this chapter really fast…Maybe I'm getting back into my updating every day groove? Maybe just for over Christmas break, but don't count on it. Thank you all for the reviews!

Thanks To: HAO-Addictive, UntitledSorrow, isa18, MaiValentinefan, Touch of the Wind, Winged-Wolf01, kari tao(ren's little sister), LilacBreeze, MiStraLL, and Dannie.

PLEASE REVIEW!


	35. A Mother and Daughter Heart to Heart

Mikau: Hello! This is a really short chapter/quick update. My updating speed seems to be getting faster and faster lately.

**_Disclaimer:_** I don't own Shaman King.

**_Dedication:_** This one's for my mommy.

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A Mother and Daughter Heart to Heart

It had been a fairly eventful day. All the kids had auditioned for the school musical, Grease, and they rode home together, arriving at the house at the same time. We were all gathered in the dinning room for dinner, and Hana, Hoshi, Ivory, and Makoto came in and sat down to eat, but Thorn and Akira both ran upstairs, intent on skipping dinner.

Anna glared up the stairs as the two teenagers raced to their rooms. She looked pointedly at me and I smiled at my sister. She shook her head and took her seat next to her husband.

Hao sat down next to me and as our eyes met I couldn't suppress a smile and a light giggle. His lips gently brushed my cheek and he whispered "Love you." in my ear.

"I love you more." I whispered back. God, how I had missed him.

"No you don't. I love you more." His lips somehow found mine and I couldn't argue with him.

"Hao! Valerie!" Anna yelled at us from across the table.

I momentarily got my tongue out of Hao's mouth to stick it out at my older sister. She didn't look too happy about that. Luckily for me, Yoh was sitting next to her. He somehow managed to placate her so that she didn't kill me.

The blonde simply shook her head at me, got up, and went over to the stairway. She called up to Akira and Thorn to come and eat dinner.

Hao turned to me, a serious look in his eyes. "Hey…do you…think I'm an okay father?"

His question shocked me. "Where did this topic come from?"

"Well…it's just that…I don't think I'm doing a good job at all, and I wanted to know what you think." He looked at me for my opinion.

I smiled and shook my head. "You know, you can only do so much. All you can do is love them and hope they turn out okay. I think you're doing the best job that you can."

He wouldn't let the subject drop at that. "But you didn't answer the question. Am I a good father or not?"

"Of course you're a good father." I looked away and mumbled under my breath, "You're a better father than I am a mother…"

"Don't say that." He tilted my chin up and smiled at me. "It's not your fault; we've been over this."

His smile put me at ease. "Thank you." I leaned in to kiss him again, but thought better of it. "We'd better not. Anna already looks mad."

He nodded and returned to his food. "You know, if you want to be a good mother, you could talk to Hoshi for me. She looks depressed, and if it's for the reason I'm thinking of, she's not going to want to talk to me. I'm just her father, and there are some things that a girl needs her mother for to talk about."

I looked over at Hoshi, sitting there, playing with her food. She did look depressed. And indecisive. And troubled. And lost, and scared, and desperate all in one. Hao was right. She did need me. I nodded, got up, and walked over to her.

"Hey." I tried smiling brightly at her, but she didn't seem to be in a mood to respond.

"Hey." Her tone was dry, dull, and almost dead.

"Do you want to talk about it?" I kneeled next to her and placed a hand on her back for support.

"There's nothing to talk about." She continued playing with her food, but not eating anything.

"You seem depressed." I tried making pointless observations just to keep the conversation going.

"I am depressed." She wasn't making this any easier on me.

"Care to say why?" I bit my lip, trying to find a way to make her talk to me.

"No. Not really. I just am." Her dead-end replies were getting me nowhere.

"You seemed perfectly happy the other day." Somewhere in the back of my mind I felt I had seen a case like hers before.

"Really? Well I'm not now." She let out a heartbreaking sigh.

'Heartbreaking…I've got it!' "So, what's his name?" I knew I had seen the symptoms before; I had shown the same signs that she was showing. She was in love, and it looked like it was a pretty complicated relationship too, not unlike my rocky relationship with Hao.

She looked up at me, and the dead look drained from her eyes. "How did you…? Come with me." She took my hand and dragged me outside under the sakura tree in the backyard.

"You're in love." I smiled as she shook her head denying it.

"No. I can't be in love. Not with this guy. It's just a bit of lust, that's all. It's nothing." She sat down at the tree's base.

I sat next to her. "Mmhm…keep telling yourself that. You know it's not true. So who is this guy? Come on, tell your mother."

She shook her head and tightly squeezed her eyes shut. "I'm not in love." Tears formed in the corners of her eyes.

"Tell me about him." I wrapped my arms around her and let her cry.

"His hair is chocolate brown and long, almost half-way down his back, but he pulls it up in a pony tail and lets his bangs fall in his eyes. His eyes are so dark brown that they look black. He's got the cutest little nose, and his face is thin, and his smile makes my heart do back-flips. He's got the worst personality though. He's so sweet when we're alone, but he's just plain awful in front of other people. The way he teases me is just horrible, but I still can't get him out of my head. I don't know if he feels the same way I do or if he's just using me. I fell in love with him so fast…I don't know if it's real or just some sort of wild fling. What do you think?" She gazed at me with such a naïve look in her eyes, most unbefitting of Hoshi. For a second I though to what I would say if it was Thorn instead.

"How old is he?"

"I don't know."

"Does he drink or smoke?"

She smiled slightly. "No. He's such a wuss. He's still a virgin."

I smiled. 'He doesn't sound too bad.' "What about a name?"

Her smile disappeared. "You wouldn't approve."

"Who cares if I approve? You're in love, and it doesn't really matter what I say. No one can make you fall out of love with someone. So, give me the dirt; what's his name?" She was probably wrong. I would be happy for her no matter who she married as long as he made her happy and didn't break her heart.

"No. You don't understand. Dad would disown me if he found out." Her eyes filled with fear at the thought.

I rolled my own dark green orbs. "Hao loves you. He wouldn't disown you for falling in love with a guy he doesn't approve of."

"But he hates this guy." She argued softly. "Promise you won't tell Dad."

"I promise." There was no other way to get the information out of her.

She looked away, burying her face in my chest and crying. "It's Lucifer."

My jaw dropped. My eyes went wide. "Oh Hoshi…" My throat suddenly went dry and I forced a swallow. "Oh sweetheart…you poor thing."

"Now you see why you can't tell Hao. He'd hate me." My daughter stifled a sob.

"He wouldn't hate you…He'd probably hang himself for failing you as a father though…" I bit the inside of my cheek. "Sorry. I'm not helping, am I?"

"No, not really. It's okay though. Lucifer probably doesn't feel the same way, and he's so much older than I am, and he…he's evil." Hoshi choked down a sob.

I chewed my lip, debating whether or not to encourage her love of the demon or not. I decided to do what was best for my daughter. "You know, Hao is a couple hundred years older than me, and before we got married, most people thought he was evil too."

She dried her eyes and looked me over, determining if I was telling her the truth. "You're right…and you two love each other…" She bit her bottom lip. As her teeth touched her lip she jumped slightly. Hoshi slowly raised her fingers to caress a tiny cut on her bottom lip. Her smile returned. "Maybe it won't be so bad. I don't know how the hell things could possibly work out between the two of us, but who knows? You and Hao got together, so maybe there is still a chance. Thanks Mom."

I got to my feet and smiled. 'Well. That went well.' "No problem." I winked and walked back to the dinning room.

"So?" Hao greeted as I took my seat next to him.

"I think things are going to be fine." I smiled and got back to my meal.

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Thanks To: HAO-Addictive, GothicShamaness13, UntitledSorrow, yo wuz up, Touch of the Wind, isa18, MaiValentinefan, demon thing, kari tao(ren's little sister), and Andrea Nefisto.

To HAO-Addictive: Yeah it has been a long time since we've talked. I haven't been keeping up with my emails lately, and I've probably got hundreds just piling up. Hopefully over Christmas Break I'll get to answering some of them…hopefully.

To yo wuz up: Yeah, Hao and Damien know each other. They aren't on very good terms though.

To kari tao(ren's little sister): Akira's little sister will be making her appearance shortly. Well…it'll be a while still, but in a few chapters.

To Andrea Nefisto: About the "Plus that one day you visited the Asakura Mansion, I saw you kissing my father dressed as Ivy. You're a cross dresser too, aren't you?" That was back in the chapter called "Delusional". Also 'Fern' is the name of one of my OCs for a fic that I'm thinking of doing after I get the Judo fic up and running. Sorry I can't talk more, but I have limited space for reviews.

PLEASE REVIEW! MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!


	36. The Meaning of Hell

Mikau: Hello! It's 11:30 here and I'm still up. I really have to take my shot and go to bed, but I wanted to get this up. I've been working on it off and on all day. I'm pretty pleased with it, though it is slightly different than I first imagined. Oh well; I'm still happy with it.

**_Disclaimer:_** I don't own Shaman King.

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The Meaning of Hell

It had been a bad day at school and I had only been there ten minutes. I had my least favorite class first, Science, my books were all in my locker, and I couldn't remember my combination. I was not having a good day, and my sister was not making it any easier on me.

Hoshi's locker was right next to mine, and she came _skipping_ up to me _smiling_. Both disturbing coming from my sister. She had been having serious mood swings lately, and was starting to scare me.

"Morning Thorn." She opened her locker with a bright smile.

"Mornin'." I muttered back. "What's got you in such a good mood? Lots of customers last night?"

Her grin only faltered slightly. "Actually, I didn't go in to work last night. I don't plan on going in at all this week."

I nodded to show I had heard her, but I wasn't completely listening as I tried inputting various combinations on my lock.

"Anyway, I'm happy because they posted the final cast list for Grease on the theatre doors." She paused for a moment to let her words sink in.

A few seconds later when they finally did, I looked up from my lock and stared blankly at her. "The _final _cast list? They didn't bother having callbacks?"

"Nope. No callbacks. They wrote a note on the cast list that said it was painfully obvious who they wanted for the roles, and callbacks would be unnecessary." There was something in her cat-like grin that told me she was scheming again.

"You got Rizzo, didn't you?" I smiled simply and my attention reverted to my still impregnable locker.

"Yep." She grinned broadly, proud to be cast in the part. "You should check out the cast list too before you go to class." She shoved me out of the way and easily got my locker open with a few practiced twists of the dial.

"Thanks. Why do you say that? Did I get anything? Chorus probably. Did Hana get anything?" I grabbed my Science texts, calculator, and lab book.

"Oh, go see for yourself." Hoshi grabbed her own books and rushed off to class.

I snorted lightly as she ran off. 'That sister of mine is so eccentric at times.' I took the long way to the science room so that I would have to walk past the theatre doors.

I looked the list over, looking for my friends' names first. Makoto was the stage manager, and Ivory had gotten the role of Jan. Hana was playing Kenickie, and Hoshi was Rizzo. I scanned the list for Lian's name, but I didn't find it. My eyes fell upon Akira's name listed next to the role of Danny. I glared. 'He wasn't _that _spectacular. I don't see how _he_ got the leading male role.' Finally I looked for my own name, but I didn't have to look far. It was listed right under Akira's.

My heart stopped. I checked the names and roles again. 'This cannot be happening.' I checked again, hoping I had misread something. Unfortunately no matter how many times I looked and checked and hoped that I was wrong, there was Akira's name listed as playing the role of Danny, and there below his name was mine.

I swallowed hard and tried not to faint as thoughts of the next few months played over and over in my head. There it was, May, and I had was going to be spending my summer working on a school musical, playing opposite that…that…person so that we could do the show the first and second weeks of the new school year once we came back from summer vacation.

Suddenly I became aware of the presence of someone standing behind me. I turned slightly and saw none other than Akira. I held my breath as he scanned the list. He mumbled the names one by one out loud. He smiled slightly when he read his own name, but when he saw mine, a soft: "Oh hell no." was upon his lips.

He looked at me like I was some sort of rotting piece of meat. "No. No. No. There has got to be some kind of mistake."

The summer was going to be hell; I could already tell. I had no idea what the word hell meant until after the show was over and I had suffered through countless hours of practices and rehearsals with Akira.

I walked off to class without a word to him, and suffered through the entire day wondering if I could somehow get out of playing the part of Sandy. But, of course, I knew they wouldn't let me out of the role. I was stuck. I pouted the rest of the day and most of the night too.

"I can't believe I got Sandy and he got Danny!" I paced back and forth on my sister's bedroom floor. "What are the odds that we two, mortal enemies, got paired as lovers in a school musical? What are the odds!"

Hoshi sat cross-legged on her bed, brushing her long, silky hair. "Better than you think." She mumbled to herself. "Thorn, it's not so bad."

"Yes, Hoshi. It's bad. It is sooooooo bad! I can't stand him, and I have to heavily make out with him on stage!" I cried out in exasperation, pleading for my sister to understand my dilemma.

She shrugged and continued to brush her hair. "Kissing a guy you don't love isn't too bad."

I stopped pacing and sat at the end of her bed, grabbing a pillow and holding it to my chest. "But it's Akira. I HATE Akira." It was a weak argument, but it was the only one I had.

"Not as much as you think." She muttered under her breath again. "And just why do you hate him?"

I looked down at my hands. I didn't have a very good answer for her. I picked up the hair tie that she had taken out of her hair and twirled it in my fingers nervously. "I don't know."

"DON'T TOUCH THAT!" She grabbed at the hair tie and clasped it tightly to her chest.

I blinked and looked at her like she was partially insane. She blinked twice at the same time and speed that I did. We looked sort of like a mirror. She obviously was realizing how crazy she sounded as well. "It was a gift." She tried to explain. "It's very important to me and the person who gave it to me."

"If it's so important to the person, then why did he or she give it to you?" My mouth hung slightly open with the question and I leaned forward to get a better look at the precious item she held close to her heart.

"I…don't know why he gave it to me…" She looked thoughtfully down at the gift.

"He must like you a lot then." I smiled childishly.

My sister's eyes went wide with discovery and her checks darkened slightly. "Y-you think so?" A womanly blush painted her cheeks as she thought about the man who had given her the present.

"Well, whoever it is, you sure do seem to like him. I don't think I've ever seen you blush like that Hosh. Someone's got it bad." My smile changed to a sly smirk.

"Ridiculous. I don't fall in love." Her single line was enough material for me to tease her with.

"I never said anything about love. I only asked if you liked him; you're the one who brought the word 'love' into the conversation. So you love him now do you?" I took pleasure in watching my sister blush.

Hoshi easily shook me off and went back to the previous topic. "Oh stop it Thorn. Don't try to change the subject. Why do you hate Akira so much?"

"Come on Hosh! I told you all about Lian and Hana and everything! You have to tell me something about this guy! Was he one of your customers?" I whined.

"Why do you hate Akira?" She was firm in her decision not to talk about the men in her life.

I sighed and gave up the topic. I would get her later. "I don't know. He annoys me a lot. Something about him just irks me, and I can't help but want to injure him. He does something to me whenever we're together. Our personalities just clash I guess."

"I see…explosive personalities." She nodded and made a mental note. "You know, that friction could easily turn to passion if you're not careful. If you slept with him—"

"—HOSHI!" I turned up my nose at the idea, too scared and inexperienced to even think of doing such a thing.

"I'm just saying." She teased.

"Well don't." I glared to cover up the blush on my cheeks.

"Hey, you should go out with your friends to celebrate." My older twin proceeded to ramble on about a new café in the area. "There's this really great place called the Star Spinner Café down by the theatre on 3rd street. Hana took me there the other day, and they have amazing pastries and sandwiches."

"I'm a vegetarian." 'How could you forget something like that?' Normally my sister's memory was infallible; something really must have been bothering her.

"Oh yeah…well get a veggie sub instead of meat. Wait, I thought you liked turkey? You always eat it at Thanksgiving." She put her precious ponytail holder around her wrist, careful not to stretch it.

"Yeah well, turkey is different." I muttered lamely.

Hoshi got up from her bed and called down the hall to Hana. "Hey Hana! Get everyone together; you're going to the Star Spinner to celebrate everyone getting cast!"

Hana yelled back. "Sure! Sounds like fun!"

I rolled my eyes. "I'm not going to celebrate having to spend my free time over the summer with Akira."

Hoshi had other plans for me. "Yes you are, now let's get you into some different clothes." She drug me over to her wardrobe and started pulling out clothes.

After several minutes of deliberation, she decided upon a tight fitting blue jean skirt that came down to mid thigh, a black leather belt decorated with shiny, silver stars, and a tight, white tank top that, thankfully, covered all but an inch or so of my stomach. The shirt was so tightly stretched over my chest that it restricted my breathing.

I looked at my sister like she was crazy, but she waved my look off and continued getting my outfit together. She reached into her closet and pulled out a familiar pair of black leather boots. I hesitantly put them on. Hoshi smiled and went over to her jewelry box, removing from it a green heart pendant choker. I immediately recognized it as mine. The one Lucifer had given me.

'How did she get that?'

As if reading my mind, Hoshi replied, "You left it lying on the floor in your room the other day. It looks good on you; you should wear it."

"Uh…yeah. Thanks." I lightly fingered the heart pendant.

"You know…we really should do something with your hair…" My sister played with a few of my brown tresses, planning out what she would do with them.

"Hosh, I think I'm fine the way I am. I like my hair down anyway." I hesitantly moved away from my sister.

"Right. Hanging down in your eyes." She shrugged and let me go. "Go ahead; they'll be waiting for you."

"Aren't you coming? You got cast too, so you should come with us." I raised an eyebrow at her.

My twin shook her head and smiled dryly. "I'm not feeling well." She lay down on her bed and motioned for me to leave.

I frowned slightly. She had seemed fine before; a little nervous, but fine. I decided not to let it trouble me. "You're acting really weird lately sis."

I went downstairs to meet up with my friends. They were waiting at the bottom of the steps for me all looking excited. All except Akira.

"I'll drive." Offered Hana.

"You always drive." Ivory complained. "I want to drive."

"You don't have your license yet coz." Akira humped.

"And yet I still drive better than you do." The Usui smiled evilly at the Tao. Akira's frown deepened.

"Where are you guys going?" Yoh, smiling happily, rounded the corner followed by Hao.

Hana answered his father coolly. "This new café just opened and Hoshi wanted me to take the guys there to celebrate all of us getting cast in Grease."

"What parts did you get?" Hao asked more out of politeness than actual interest.

Ivory quickly supplied an answer, "Hana-koi is Kenickie, I'm Jan, Rara-kun is Danny, Hoshi is Rizzo, Makoto is the Stage Manager, and Thorn is Sandy."

"Congratulations." My father looked at me proudly, but his smile dropped when he saw what I was wearing. "Thorn do you plan on going out in public dressed like that?"

"It was Hoshi's idea." I shrugged, not caring for the outfit any more than he did.

"I'll have to have a word with your sister." Hao rolled his eyes and ascended the stairs. Yoh followed close behind his older brother.

Hana turned and looked curiously at me. "Isn't Hoshi coming with us?"

"No. She said she wasn't feeling well." I quickly explained.

"Multiple STDs will do that to you." Akira muttered smugly.

I felt like murdering him. "Why you little!" I lunged at him, but Hana grabbed and restrained me. "Let me go! I wanna hit him! No one insults my sister like that!"

"Let her go Hana, her punches don't hurt that bad." Akira's smug grin made me see red. I struggled with my cousin to get to the Tao.

Ivory hit Akira over the head with Makoto. "Stop it Akira. You know she beat you up real bad the other day, and no one wants t' have t' doctor you if ya get her angry and she pounds you again."

Akira paled and his eyes turned to slits of hate pointed in his cousin's direction.

I smiled and laughed at the blue snow bunny's comment, deciding to let Akira off this once.

"Thanks Ivory." Hana whispered in his friend's ear.

"No prob, Hana-koi." The Ainu smiled broadly.

"Uhhhh…" Makoto rubbed his sore head tenderly. Ivory scooped him up in her arms and immediately started fussing over him.

"Oh! Makoto-kun! Are you all right? I'm sorry!"

Makoto straightened his bent glasses and waved off her concern. "I'll be okay. You can put me down now."

"Nonsense. I like carrying you." She hugged him to her chest like a doll, and we went out to the car. Hana drove, Ivory sat next to him with Makoto on her lap, and once again I was stuck riding in the backseat with Akira.

"Why am I always forced to sit next to her?" The Chinese shaman complained.

"I was just thinking the same thing." I muttered darkly.

Ivory turned around to smile teasingly at us as we sat as far away from each other on the seat as possible. "Because I like to sit next to Hana-koi, and he always drives. There's no more room up front anyway."

"Then why is Makoto sitting up there on your lap?" I chanced a stupid question.

And got a stupid answer. "Because he doesn't want to sit in-between you two while you rage world war three back there."

Akira glared at his cousin. "I'd kill you if my imouto wasn't so overly fond of you."

"I know, but you and Thorn make such a cute couple. You know we give you the whole backseat for a reason, so why don't you just get over your pride and get busy with her already?" Ivory burst into peals of giggles and turned back around in her seat.

"Why you insinuating pig!" Akira's face turned blood red and he looked like he wanted to slay his Ainu cousin.

I completely missed the innuendoes in the joke.

Hana's phone rang and Ivory stopped laughing long enough to answer it for him. "Moshi moshi. Usui Ivory wa desu…Oh hello Hoshi!…Yeah, this is his cell phone…Yeah, he's driving. I'll put him on." She turned to Hana. "Hana-koi, it's Hoshi. She says it's urgent."

Hana took the phone from Ivory and drove with one hand. "Hey Hosh. What's up? Thorn said you weren't feeling well; are you okay?…Oh. I see. Anything I can do?…Done. Whatever you say Hoshi. Anything else?…No problem. I'll see ya later."

I poked my head up front and glanced at Hana. "Is my sister okay?"

He looked sideways at me. "Yeah, she's fine. She just wanted me to do something for her. It's nothing really." I could tell his smile was fake, but I didn't bother confronting him about it.

We arrived at the Star Spinner Café soon enough, and took a booth by the window. Hana and Ivory shared a seat with Makoto on her lap, and I was inevitably left to sit next to Akira in the booth. The waiter came and everyone ordered. Mostly everyone had sandwiches; Hana had the chicken teriyaki, Ivory had pepperoni and tomato, Makoto had turkey, but both Akira and I just ordered a bagel. I glared at him for stealing my order.

"It's not like I copied you on purpose. I did order before you after all, so aren't you the one copying off of me?" He glared evilly back.

"I'm not talking to you." I sipped my water delicately, trying my best to imitate the way my sister might act if a man displeased her.

"Sure you're not. Because you can't talk to me, just like you can't get a boyfriend." Akira scoffed, enjoying being cruel and heartless to me.

"I can too get a boyfriend!" All delicate thoughts were pushed from my mind as I reverted to the childish behavior Akira brought out in me.

"I seriously doubt it. Just look at you." He eyed my body suggestively. "You couldn't attract even the most desperate man with _that._ Your chest is too flat, your hair is too wild, your nose is too small, your lips are to thin, your neck is too skinny, your stomach is too flat, you don't have any hips, your legs are too muscular, and your feet are too flat."

My temper flared and I couldn't sit and take his harsh treatment any longer. "Too flat, too small. Anything else? Don't you want to insult my eyes too? What are they? Too shiny for you? Or are they too dull? Too dark? Too glassy?"

"Actually, they're—" Our eyes met by chance and his lips stopped moving. He stared deep into my eyes and his own filled with recognition. "They're perfect…too beautiful to describe…"

I blinked. "What?" My brain froze and time seemed to stop. 'Did he just…compliment me?' He leaned forward. Our lips were just about to touch when I pulled away and slapped him. "How dare you? How can you insult me like that and then expect me to kiss you? What do you think I am? Don't you know I hate your guts?" I pushed past him out of the booth and was about to leave when he grabbed my wrist.

"Thorn! Wait!" He swallowed and looked me over again.

I snatched my wrist out of his grip and glared at him, awaiting an explanation.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean any of that stuff." He stood and took my hand in his. "We need to talk…about someone named Dao Lian. Have you ever met someone by that name."

I raised an eyebrow. 'How does he know my Lian-koi?' "Yeah, I danced with him at the Masquerade. We email each other a lot too. How does someone like _you_ know someone like him?" I made sure to say 'you' with as much spite and venom as possible.

He looked at me desperately. "Thorn…I _am_—" My cell phone ring cut him off.

I quickly fished the phone out of my pocket and answered. "Moshi moshi. Asakura Thorn wa desu."

"Thorn, it's Hoshi. I need you to come home right now. It's urgent, so get home as fast as you can." I didn't get a chance to say anything before she hung up.

I stood there with the phone to my ear looking stupid. 'What could possibly be the matter now?' I turned to the others. "I have to go." I rushed out of the shop before anyone could argue.

Akira was about to follow me, but Hana stopped him. "Wait. Give her ten minutes and then you can go after her." The Tao tried to protest, but my cousin somehow convinced him to wait the ten minutes.

I walked quickly towards home, going over what Hoshi had said a good thousand times in my head. Her voice had been rushed and panicked, but somehow even and controlled. She was nervous, but focused. Something was up. I quickened my pace, getting increasingly nervous as the seconds ticked off.

I was getting paranoid. There was no one out on the streets. Why? It was quiet. Too quiet. My heart beat loudly in my ears. I gulped. Something about what my sister had said and the way she said it irked me. Something was weird about the way she had phrased it…I didn't know why, but it made me infinitely jumpy and self-conscious.

It was nearly 7:30 at night, and it was getting dark. Every alleyway made my heart stop briefly. Suddenly, walking home alone at night didn't seem like a good idea. There I was, a teenage girl, alone, after dark, wearing my sister's striper's clothes. I held my breath as I passed another dark alley. I was scared to death that someone would jump out and attack me. But then, that seemed silly since there was no one out on the streets; no cars drove past either. I walked past a lamppost and the bulb shorted out. Only a dim light remained to light my way.

A dark, male voice whispered evilly in my ear. "What's a girl like you doing out all by yourself this late at night?" I didn't even have time to turn around before he grabbed me, covering my mouth and restraining my arms. I tried kicking and screaming, but I couldn't break free from his hold.

I reached for my gun, but my heart sunk in utter terror when I realized I was wearing Hoshi's clothes. My gun was in my pants pocket lying on Hoshi's bedroom floor. I blinked back tears as the man wrestled me to the ground and forced himself on top of me. My head had hit the concrete sidewalk when he pushed me down, and I lay beneath him in utter submission, floating between consciousness.

He bit hungrily at my neck, ripping off my shirt and skillfully unhooking my bra. I tried to resist, but my body wouldn't respond. I cried since I couldn't do anything else to prevent myself from being raped. The man's hands hesitantly brushed against the buttons on my skirt. I closed my eyes, not being able to stand watching any longer. I couldn't see his face…it was too dark. 'Maybe it's best. If he leaves me alive I won't have his face in my nightmares. Is this how Hoshi felt?'

The sound of footsteps walking quickly met my ears. I called out for help and they quickened their pace, running. "THORN!"

I recognized that voice. "Akira?" I could barely do more than mumble. I'm sure he didn't hear me though. At the same time I muttered Akira's name, twelve rounds from a gun fired. I don't remember exactly what happened after that, but I have enough memories to be able to put the pieces of the puzzle together.

After Akira shot the man that had tried to rape me, he rushed to my side and made sure I was okay. He took off his own jacket and wrapped it around me. He pulled out his cell phone and called Hana. The others arrived in a matter of minutes in the car and they all helped to get me home.

I remember my father and Valerie freaking out. Anna and Yoh tried to be as helpful as possible, but there was nothing much they could do. Faust checked me out and doctored the bump on the back of my head from where it had contacted the pavement. Akira and Hana never once left my side. Makoto comforted Ivory, and Hoshi stayed close at all times. My twin looked pale. She was extremely relieved to find out that Akira had intervened before the man had done anything serious to me. By this time I was feeling more awake, and the drowsiness from the bump to the head had worn off.

"I'm so sorry Thorn." My sister wiped a lone, guilty tear from her eyes as she hugged me. I was about to tell her it wasn't her fault and that I was okay, but she didn't give me the chance. As soon as she broke the hug, Hoshi ran upstairs to her bedroom and locked the door.

I looked to Hana as if he might know what was wrong with my sister. He looked guiltily down at me. "I'm sorry Thorn." He kissed me on the forehead and left to check on Ivory. She was even more shaken up by the night's events than I was.

Valerie sat at the head of my bed and smiled softly at me. "I'm just glad you're okay." She wiped a tear from her eye.

My father sat next to her. They sat so close together that not even a beacon of light could find room to pass between them. Hao ruffled my hair fondly. "I knew I shouldn't have let you go out like that. No more running off by yourself at night, okay? And you." My father spoke pointedly to Akira who was sitting on the other side of my bed.

Akira looked startled for a minute, pointing to himself and mouthing the word 'Me?'

Hao nodded. "I've changed my mind about you. You're not such a snot-nosed jerk after all."

"Thank you sir." Akira nodded, clearly afraid, if not, cautious of my father.

"I'm going to go make us some hot chocolate." Valerie announced. "We could all use it."

She stood and Hao followed her. "I'll come with you. You'll need help carrying all the cups."

I looked up at Akira nervously. I opened my mouth to speak, but closed it before words could come out. I sat up in bed and opened my mouth again. Better to do this while at eye level with him. "I just wanted to…I mean, I owe…I really just…" I quickly kissed him on the cheek. "Thank you Akira." I lay back down and closed my eyes, feinting attempting to rest.

"You really don't need to thank me. I'd do anything for you." His tone was sweet and loving. Both characteristics unbefitting of the Akira I knew and loathed.

"Still…I owe you one, okay?" I didn't wait for an answer. "Goodnight Akira."

"Night Thorn." He kissed my cheek and left the room, flicking the light switch off on his way out.

My eyes slowly opened and my hand rose to my cheek. 'Everyone is acting strangely lately.'

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Mikau: Well so there it is. I really liked the scene between Hoshi and Thorn up in Hoshi's room…I don't know why, but I just do. Hoshi seems to be acting a little off in this chapter, but that will be explained next chapter. Speaking of which, I'll see you all then. Merry Christmas if I don't update between now and then! Actually I wanted to have this done by Christmas and post the final chapter on the 25th because it's Hoshi and Thorn's birthday, but whatever…I also only planned on having this as a 20 chapter long thing, but that didn't work out either…I'm never any good at guessing how long something will take me or how long something will be. Merry Christmas guys! I'll try and at least post a chapter on Christmas.

Thanks To: MaiValentinefan, My favorite flamer D, yo wuz up, Andrea Nefisto, HAO-Addictive, Touch of the Wind, isa18, GothicShamaness13, knux33, Dannie, LilacBreeze, DarkPisces33, and kari tao(ren's little sister).

To D: Merry Christmas to you too. Thanks for continuously reading my fics and reviewing even though you constantly flame me.

To yo wuz up: If Hao and Damien ever got in a fight, then there would be no world left when they were through, so we don't know who's stronger.

To Andrea Nefisto: A fern is a plant, and Lucifer is Lucifer's real name. He kept his angel name just in case he ever gets back into Heaven.

To GothicShamaness13: Diablo may appear in later chapters, but he won't have a huge part. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you as well; thanks for the review!

To DarkPisces33: Akira just realized that _TornByThorns _is Thorn this chapter. He didn't know before. Thorn is still clueless about everything though. Lucifer and Hao don't have very compatible personalities, and the few times that they've met, they've never gotten along. Perhaps if they put their differences aside and sat down for coffee and got talking, but they just don't really get along. Have fun Christmas shopping!

PLEASE REVIEW!


	37. In Love With a Demon

Mikau: It feels soooo good to be updating everyday again! I'm soooo happy! I did nothing today but write this chapter, email friends, listen to music, and play Minesweeper. Yeah, I've been soooooo lazy today, so sue me. I'm happy with this chapter. I was really happy about finally getting to write it.

**_Disclaimer:_** I don't own Shaman King.

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In Love With a Demon

"You're acting really weird lately sis." Thorn looked back at me somberly as she left my room.

'Just because I might be sending you off to your death. I really can't guarantee your safety little sis.' The reality of what I was doing was finally sinking in. I took the hair tie off my wrist and looked at it. "Please don't let me down. My heart can't take being broken again."

I waited for a good ten or fifteen minutes before reaching for the cordless phone on my nightstand. I quickly dialed Hana's number.

_"Moshi moshi. Usui Ivory wa desu."_ The person who answered obviously wasn't Hana.

"Hello Ivory—"

_"Oh hello Hoshi!"_ Ivory cut me off with her shrill greetings.

"Isn't this Hana's phone?" I tried to get her to hand the phone over to my cousin.

_"Yeah, this is his cell phone."_ No such luck. It looked like I would have to directly ask for Hana.

"Well, were is he? Can I talk to him? It's sort of urgent."

_"Yeah, he's driving. I'll put him on."_ There was a moment of rustling and before I knew it, Hana was on the phone.

"_Hey Hosh. What's up? Thorn said you weren't feeling well; are you okay?"_ His concern was sweet, but I wasn't really sick.

"I feel fine. I had to stay home in order for this plan to work."

"_Oh. I see. Anything I can do?"_

"Yes. In about an hour I'm going to call Thorn and ask her to come home for some reason or another. I need you to make sure that initially she walks home by herself, but then Akira goes home about ten minutes after her. Do you think you can handle this for me? Everything needs to be precise." 'Or else my sister might actually…' I pushed the thoughts from my mind and concentrated on Hana's voice.

"_Done. Whatever you say Hoshi. Anything else?" _He was so trusting. I hadn't told him what I was planning, and he didn't ask, yet he was eager to follow my instructions blindly and to the letter.

"No. That should be all. Thank you Hana."

"_No problem. I'll see ya later."_

"See ya." I clicked the 'end call' button and sighed.

"This is going to take years off my life. Too much stress." I watched the minutes tick off on the clock on the bedside table. 'You could always back out now.' I shook the thoughts away. It was too late. At around 7:20 I picked up the phone again and held my breath as I dialed Thorn's cell phone.

"_Moshi moshi. Asakura Thorn wa desu." _Her voice chirped brightly.

"Thorn, it's Hoshi. I need you to come home right now. It's urgent, so get home as fast as you can." I clicked the 'end call' button before I could back out and tell her not to come. I let out yet another agonized sigh and put the phone back in its cradle. Tears built in the corners of my eyes. 'You're setting your own sister up to get raped. You are so going to Hell.'

"Please Lucifer…don't betray me. God, I hope Hana remembers to send Akira after her…So many things could go wrong…" I blinked back more tears and waited. It was all I could do.

Almost twenty minutes later the front door burst open and in came the whole gang in utter panic. My parents were freaking out, my aunt and uncle tried to be as helpful as possible, and the Fausts examined Thorn. Ivory cried and was in an utter hysteria. Makoto comforted her some, but the girl seemed to be all water works. I rushed down the stairs and demanded someone tell me everything that happened.

Hana looked at me like I was some sort of murder. He also had a look of guilt on his face for his involvement in the matter. I knew he wouldn't tell anyone what I had done, but the way he looked at me; I felt guilty enough already. I didn't need him to add to my already self-induced guilt trip.

Akira filled me in on the details: Thorn had started walking home by herself, some guy had jumped her and was about to rape her when Akira caught up to them and saved my sister. Everything had gone according to plan. It was going to be okay. Everything was fine. Only a slight minor set back: Thorn had bumped her head on the sidewalk, but Dr. Faust assured me that it wasn't anything serious.

My dangerous scheme had worked. I felt so relieved. But then I saw Thorn lying in her bed hanging in semi-consciousness. Guilt overtook me. My sister sat up in bed and smiled at me. The veil of drowsiness was slowly lifting from her. "I'm so sorry Thorn." I wiped a tear from my eye and hugged her. I broke away and ran to my bedroom before she could say a word. I didn't want to hear 'It's not your fault.' It _was _my fault. I had orchestrated the whole affair.

I shut the door behind me and locked it. I jumped when someone groaned. I spun around and spotted the motionless form on my bed. "Lucifer." I let out a soft sigh of relief. I took a few steps toward him. "What are you—Oh my…God…" My brain froze over, unable to properly comprehend what my eyes were seeing. Bullet holes. Twelve of them. Spilling liquid flames.

He looked up at me weakly and smiled. "Hey Hoshi…" It was obvious he was having a great deal of trouble breathing.

"Oh my God…" I repeated, unable to think of anything else to do. "What...? I…Lucifer…"

He struggled to speak, "Akira had a gun."

'This is my fault.' I rushed to his side and removed his shirt to get a better look at the wounds.

He opened his mouth to make some sort of innuendo filled remark, but instead of words, his blood flowed out of the side of his mouth. He coughed up more of the flaming liquid.

"The bullets are in there deep." I swallowed the words, getting them out barely above a whisper.

"It's not that serious. It looks worse than it actually is. As long as the bullets are in there they are preventing me from healing. If you could just get the bullets out and wrap the wounds they'd be healed by morning." He coughed again and more blood came up.

I fought back tears, but they were winning over my free will. "This is all my fault."

"Aw quit it. You didn't know he had a gun. It's not like I'm gonna die or anything. I'm just temporarily in a lot of discomfort. It's worth it if your plan worked." He smiled again at me and my heart was ready to break.

I sat down on the bed next to him and ran my fingers over his lips. "I didn't mean for you to get hurt…I'm sorry…"

"I know. Now, can we get the lead out of me?"

I blinked. I had almost forgotten. "Right." I ran to get some medical supplies. I sterilized a pair of metal tongs and got a bowl to put the bullets in. I cleaned the wounds and wiped the blood from his lips. "This might hurt." I warned before inserting the tongs.

He winced as I pulled. His teeth clenched and he sharply took a breath. The bullet was in there deep and it was stuck. He whimpered softly in pain, tears forming at the corners of his eyes. I gripped his hand and kissed his knuckles lightly as I pulled the first bullet out of his stomach.

"One down, eleven to go." I informed him gravely. I was about to start on the second, but he stopped me.

"Don't you have any morphine or something? A little laughing gas? I'd really rather be drugged out of it than have to go through eleven more rounds of that." He pleaded.

"I'm sorry. That's all locked up down in the lab. I would go get you some, but I can't. Wait. I've got an idea." I closed my eyes and concentrated hard. A facemask and a small vial of laughing gas appeared in my hand. "This should be enough to last us half an hour. Don't you want it?"

He eagerly nodded. "Definitely. Anything is better than feeling this."

I fitted the mask over his mouth and nose. "All right, but I'm not responsible for anything you say while you're under this stuff."

He looked worried at my words. "Then maybe I—"

"Too late." I flicked the switch and the small mask gave him a dose of the gas. "Breath in slowly." I instructed.

He nodded and did as he was told. "Hey Hosh, whatever I say…Um…ignore me completely."

"What? You got something to hide?" I teased him lightly as his eyes glazed over.

"More than you'd guess. I feel funny…" His words slurred slightly as the gas took effect. "Hey, you didn't yell at me for calling you Hosh." He was still coherent enough to make that observation.

'He's right. I didn't.' "I suppose it might be okay if you called me that every once in awhile." I pushed a loose bang out of his eyes. His dark, coal black eyes were so beautiful. I could stare into them forever.

"You have really pretty eyes." His words echoed my thoughts.

I blinked. 'He thinks that my eyes are…' But then I remembered the laughing gas. "Okay, I think you're out of it enough. You're acting delusional." I took the mask off and turn off the gas. I would be able to get the bullets out without hurting him as much. I prepared to take a second bullet out of his chest.

He only grunted slightly as I yanked it out. "They remind me of when I was in Heaven, your eyes. The sky was that same color blue and the stars burned that color when they were born. It was beautiful. I used to sit up on the clouds with my mom when I was little and we would watch the stars."

He paused as I removed a piece of lead from his side.

"I think that's what I miss the most. Watching the stars with my mother. There are no stars underground. I miss Heaven; it was a little boring, but it was a lot better than Hell. It's cleaner, and the people are nicer. That's sort of obvious though."

I pulled a bullet from his chest, where his heart should have been. My curiosity got the better of me and I halted what I was doing for a minute to ask, "What are the angles like?" I had only met Michael, Raphael, and Gabriel, so I didn't have a very well rounded experience with angels.

He looked up at me and smiled. "Angels? They're gorgeous creatures. The men are all good looking, and the women are more beautiful than super models down here on Earth. They have vividly colored eyes and their hair is in perfect condition. Most of them have these delicate, frail shapes, but there are a few more tough looking ones with some muscle on them. They're all heavenly looking; I think you're prettier though."

My heart jumped. 'It's the laughing gas talking. He's completely drugged.' I returned to work removing bullets. I tried to tune him out, but his words spilled right into my ears through the mental block I had set up.

"Most of those women have soft, birdlike personalities. They're just begging you to shelter and protect them, but you're different. Sure you still need a man to protect you on some level, but you'd be fine on your own. You don't absolutely need a man. Well that's the way you act anyway. You're tough on the outside, but on the inside you're just as frail and delicate as those angels."

I blushed feverishly and my breathing sped up. 'This was not a good idea. Concentrate on the bullets Hoshi.' I took out the fifth bullet.

"Ivy was the same way. She still is. That's what made me fall in love with her. I've pretty much given up on making Ivy love me though. She loves Hao. There's no changing that, so why bother trying?" His tone turned dark.

The sixth bullet came out of his chest. "We're halfway done."

He continued his depressing monologue. "I made myself fall in love with Thorn so that I could forget about Ivy, and it worked for a little while. I gave her that necklace that she's wearing. I forced her to make out with me and then I erased her memory of it. She still remembers that I'm the one who gave the choker to her though. I feel really bad about it now. I didn't really love her and I made her think she was in love with me. I erased her memories of falling in love with a man named Lucifer tonight, so she just thinks we're friends."

Bullet number seven came out easily. I hadn't known that he had been involved with my sister. I wasn't angry at him for forcing Thorn to fall in love with him, but I was jealous. I was jealous that he chose my sister instead of me. What was wrong with me that he didn't choose me?

"Can I pay you to sleep with me?" My hand jerked at his question and he winced in pain.

"Sorry. What did you say? I must have heard you wrong." My throat was dry and my stomach queasy.

"I asked if I could pay you to sleep with me. You know like be a customer of yours? I figure no woman in her right mind would love me any other way, so why not do what my brother does? It seems to be working for him." I yanked the eighth bullet out extra roughly. He winced.

"You don't know what you're talking about. You're under the influence of laughing gas, and you don't know what you're talking about." I got ready to rid his body of the ninth bullet. "Don't waste yourself buying a woman you don't love. Prostitutes aren't the answer."

"My brother warned me not to fall for that kind of women, but I didn't listen to him. I suppose you don't pick who you fall in love with though." He gritted his teeth more than usual as I pulled out the ninth bullet.

I didn't understand what he meant by that, so I shook it off as the laughing gas making him act goofy. He looked almost ready to fall asleep.

"How much would I have to pay you to love me?"

Again, his question shocked me and my hand unexpectedly jerked. I mutter a quick 'sorry' as he bit back the pain. Bullet number ten was stuck pretty badly in his stomach. I had a very hard time getting it out.

"I don't want to buy your love though." He mumbled quietly to himself. I had to strain my ears to hear him as he drifted off to sleep. "I control free will, so I could force you to sleep with me, but I can't control love, so I can't make you love me. Damien was right." His breathing slowed as he slept and I quickly finished pulling out the bullets while he still couldn't feel anything.

His eyes slowly cracked open as I removed the last bullet from his thigh. He screamed silently in pain, gripping the edge of the bed, and I felt bad since there was nothing I could do. The bullet came out roughly.

"I think the gas has worn off." His voice was completely steady and contained no slurs. His eyes weren't glassy either. I nodded in agreement. "What'd I say?" He asked cautiously.

I blushed and turned away to hide it. I pretended to be putting away medical equipment 'You told me my eyes looked like the stars and sky in heaven and that I was more beautiful than the angels. Then you asked if I'd sleep with you.' "You didn't say anything of importance. Just some madness brought about by chemical reactions with the laughing gas."

"Oh. Good." There was silence for a while as I got out the gauze and oils to dress his wounds. "Because from the way you're blushing I thought I might have hit on you."

My face broke out in bright patches of fuchsia, but I still managed to keep a straight face. "I've been ill. My fever is making my face flush."

"Oh." He watched with minimal interest and tired eyes as I wrapped up the wound in his collarbone. "Hey Hosh?"

I tried not to look at him directly. Because of the area I was wrapping, our faces were extremely close, and I didn't want to risk my poker face shattering if I looked at him. "Mm?"

He smiled deviously, lifting his head a fraction of an inch and connecting our lips. His tongue easily gained entrance into my mouth, but he pulled away from me as fast as he had swooped in and claimed my lips. "You don't have a fever. Your temperature is normal."

I made the mistake of looking at him, and my cool façade was broken. I blushed like a schoolgirl with a crush. I desperately went back to doctoring the wounds. Being a doctor is extremely hard when you're secretly madly in love with your patient.

"Come on Hoshi; what did I say?" He smirked malevolently.

"You said my eyes were pretty. That's all. Now, drop it." I moved down to bandaging his stomach. He had to sit up so I could wrap around him.

"I highly doubt it. I tried to get you in bed didn't I?"" He smirked. I blushed, hating my body for betraying me. "And what did you say? Yes? Or maybe _Oh YES_?"

"Shut up Lucifer. I told you to go back to hell where you came from." That seemed to shut him up.

He nodded and a drowsy look came back over him. "Don't worry. I won't bother you anymore after I leave tomorrow morning."

"Will I ever see you again?" I said it at risk of sounding clichéd.

"Probably every once in a while, but no not really." He shrugged it off, but I detected a depressed tone in his voice.

"But…I still owe you. Our first deal; remember?" I made any excuse not to say goodbye forever.

"Oh. Yeah, I already have something planned for you. It will be a while before I actually call in that favor. We won't be seeing each other for a few months at least." His words were breaking my heart. I didn't see the hurt look in his eyes.

"Can't you make some excuse to see me?" I held my breath and waited for him to shut me down.

He looked taken aback. "Why would you want to see me?"

'Here goes nothing.' "Lucifer when you were under, you told me that my eyes were gorgeous and that I was even more beautiful than an angel." I looked nervously into his eyes.

His lips formed a small 'Oh', but he didn't say anything.

"I was wondering…I mean…" I stumbled over my words, unable to look at him any longer.

"Hoshi, about that…I—"

I cut him off. I couldn't contain it any longer. "I love you Lucifer. I know I shouldn't, but I do. I love you." Small, pearl-sized tears dropped from my eyes and I couldn't meet his gaze.

He stared at me in shock. Blinking twice he tilted my chin up to look in my eyes. 'She's serious…' I tried to tune out his thoughts, but I was too emotional, and had lost control of my powers. 'She really does love me…The devil…' "Hoshi, I…I love you too." He paused and cleared his throat nervously. "And I might have been lying when I said we wouldn't be seeing each other. I…uh…sort of cast myself as that one gang leader that Rizzo sleeps with. I wasn't going to tell you, but now I really don't see the harm. I wanted to be near you."

"Come here you." I grabbed his shoulders and lay down, forcing him on top of me.

"H-hoshi?" He looked nervously at me, noticing my cat-like grin and the position we were in.

"You've been a virgin far too long." My smile widened.

"Just be careful. I did just get shot 12 times." A slow smile blossomed on his lips as well.

"I make no guarantees." I whispered huskily in his ear.

The next morning I smiled when I woke up with his head resting on my chest. He was so cute when he was asleep. I couldn't resist stroking his soft, disheveled hair. At the base of his neck I spotted a string of hickeys and my smile widened. I was sure I had a few hickeys myself in places I couldn't even see. It was so different making love with someone you actually loved. Everything was different. I decided I might just have to retire early. I wouldn't be going into work that night. Or the night after that. I was through.

Lucifer stirred some in his sleep. 'He's soooooo adorable!' An impish grin returned to my face. 'And God he's hell in bed.'

His eyes slowly opened and he smiled lazily up at me, moving his head onto the pillow next to mine. "Morning." His lips romantically caressed mine.

I sighed with pleasure when he pulled away. "Morning yourself."

"Am I allowed to ask how you slept now?" His devilishly handsome grin made my heart do back flips.

I smiled, remembering one of our pervious morning conversations. "Yes you may ask, and that is the best I've ever slept in my entire life." I giggled softly. "What about you? Did you dream about me?"

"All night long." He kissed the base of my neck gently. "I love you."

"I love you too." 'Oh how I love you.' I suddenly remember that he had gotten shot the night before. "How are your wounds? Are they…?"

"They're healed, thanks to you." He took off the bandages and showed me that there wasn't even a single scratch to show that he had been shot. "But my body is complete stiff, and I'm sore all over." He lay back down lazily on my chest.

"Get use to it newbie." I ruffled his hair playfully, scrunching my nose at him.

"Eventually I will." He rolled his eyes and sat up again, hovering over my lips and smirking. He ran his fingers lightly over my lips.

"Don't tease me." I whined. He pressed his lips to mine and my arms wrapped around his neck. The kissed didn't last long enough.

Lucifer pulled away and smiled sadly. "You have to get ready for school."

"I'll call in sick." I'd give anything to spend more time with him. I forced his lips back to mine.

He separated us once more. "If you don't get down to breakfast soon, someone will come up to get you, and we'll be found out. Then I won't be able to see you anymore."

"All right." I grudgingly got out of bed and went over to my wardrobe. I noticed that he stayed in my bed watching me with interest. I gave him a look.

"What? Am I not allowed to watch you get dressed? It's not like I haven't had my mouth all over every single part of that." He winked suggestively and I threw a bra at him.

"Put some clothes on Lucifer." I pulled out my school uniform and hastily put it on. By the time I turned back around, the bed was made, the clothes I had left on the floor the night before were in the dirty clothes hamper, and Lucifer was sitting on the bed wearing black dress pants and a black tank top. My jaw dropped slightly in surprise. He smirked mysteriously. I shook my head and asked, "So, how do I look?"

"Can I take the clothes off of you now?" I resisted the urge to smack him.

"You're not going to become a sex-crazed maniac now that I've given you a little taste, are you Lucifer?" I rolled my eyes fondly at him.

"I already was a sex-crazed maniac. Now I'm your sex-crazed maniac." His loving smiled teased me.

I kissed him lightly on the lips as he embraced me. "And I'm yours. I'm quitting my job." 'Maybe I'll just work as a stripper for a while. No more prostituting.'

He looked infinitely relieved as I shared my news. "Thank God. I'll see you at rehearsal tonight?"

"Yeah, I'll see you then. Love you." Another quick kiss.

"Love you too." And he left, leaving me to go downstairs and join my family for breakfast.

Hana intercepted me on the way down the stairs with a "Hey, Hoshi!"

"Hmm?" I looked up at him curiously.

"Look, I got this email today and I thought that maybe it might be useful to your plan." He smiled happily as he told me about a 'get to know your friends' email. You wrote all sorts of things like your name, age, grade school, high school, favorite food, and favorite color and then you sent it to your friends. They filled out the same categories and sent it back to you and then to their other friends. "What do you think Hoshi?"

"You know, you better send this to me; it sounds like it could be useable. We'll talk more later okay?" I turned to go downstairs.

"Hoshi? About last night with Thorn almost getting raped…"

I held my breath and waited for him to yell at me about how reckless I had been.

It never came. "I think your plan is working. Akira and Thorn seem on much better terms now. At first I thought you were crazy, but now…I'm sorry I doubted you." He smiled and ran past me down the steps.

I smiled. Things were looking up.

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Mikau: Yea, we end on a happy note! I think we're getting close to the end. (Ha! I said that one chapter in I,SR, and I wrote a grand total of 20 more chapters.) Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday to Hoshi and Thorn if I don't get another chapter up before then. I don't know I might post some short chapters, but nothing huge.

Thanks To: HAO-Addictive, KaZuYa MiNeKuRa, Touch of the Wind, Untitled Sorrow, isa18, demon thing, MaiValentinefan, yo wuz up, and kari tao(ren's little sister).

To Touch of the Wind: I can't wait until you get your next chapter up! I love your fic it's so good! Hurry up and update by order of the mighty Mikauzoran! Lololol! Sorry, couldn't resist.

To kari tao(ren's little sister): I'm so happy that your cousin made it home safely. My uncle has to go through Kuwait and some other state's military base before he comes home to Missouri. He left Kuwait a few days ago and is on his way home now. The Scoby side of my family is getting together next week sometime to celebrate Christmas. We're waiting to celebrate so that Steve will be home when we get together, so I get to see him then. By the way, Akira's little sister's name is Jade, and she's 12. Merry Christmas!

PLEASE REVIEW! I'LL CONSIDER IT MY CHRISTMAS PRESENT.


	38. Difficult First Rehearsal

Mikau: Hello everyone! Sorry that I haven't updated in…who knows how long. I've been pretty sick. I still am pretty sick, but for a week or so I didn't even get out of bed or touch my computer. I'm feeling a bit better, but my blood sugar is really messed up, and it's been hard to type. So that's the story of me not updating for forever.

**_Disclaimer:_** I don't own Shaman King.

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Difficult First Rehearsal

"Now are you sure you want to go to school today?" My father checked for the thirty thousandth and thirty-third time. "Cause you know, after last night, you don't have to."

I waved him away and continued munching on my toast. "Nothing happened last night. I'm fine. Even the bump on my head is completely healed. Besides, I have rehearsal tonight, and I'm the leading female role. I can't not show up."

"Come on Hao, let her go. Thorn's tough." My uncle Yoh put an arm around me and looked up with innocent eyes at his older twin.

"That's easy for you to say; you're not her father." Hao mumbled sullenly.

"If she says she's fine, she is." Valerie ruffled my father's hair playfully as she walked past. "Let her eat her breakfast; she needs her strength."

Hao was instantly distracted. "If you say so."

"Come on," She pulled him over to their seats at the table. "You have to eat to." She smiled and he melted. He smiled sappily with a love-struck look in his eyes and did whatever she told him.

"They're so in love." Being the romantic in the family, I sighed dreamily. I looked at my uncle who was also watching the lovebirds flirt heavily over breakfast. "They really should get married."

He nodded. "Yeah…they were made for each other. I'm surprised she hasn't told him yet."

"Told him what? That she's pregnant with his child?" I held my breath and waited hopefully.

Yoh blinked. "Hmm? Oh, no. That—never mind." My uncle smiled sheepishly, almost revealing information that he shouldn't have.

"Oh come on Yoh! You have to tell me!" I begged and pleaded, knowing that my uncle couldn't keep a secret from me very well.

"Yoh." Anna towered over the two of us looking displeased.

"Yes Anna?" Yoh was saved from revealing secrets by his wife.

"Why aren't you sitting by me at your usual spot? Am I not good enough for you anymore?" The blonde Itako looked angry.

"NO! No…Um…I'll see you Thorn." The Shaman King escaped with his wife.

A frustrated sigh left my lips as he got away. 'No one ever tells me anything.' I was distracted from my depressing thoughts shortly there after by a friendly greeting from my cousin.

Hana waved at me as he came dashing down the stairs, giving me a brief greeting. "Hey Thorn! How ya feelin'?"

"Fine thanks." I answered quickly as he took his seat next to Ivory and Makoto.

My sister walked slowly down the stairs after Hana and took her place next to me, a completely elated grin plastered permanently on her face. She hummed happily to herself, a dreamy look in her eye as she stirred her tea mechanically, not really perceiving anything that was happening around her.

"So, what are you high on?" I teased.

"Hmm?" She came back down to Earth for a minute, realizing where she was and what was going on. "Oh. Hello Thorn." She smiled brightly, unable to hide the gleaming light in her eyes. "I've just had the best night of my life."

It was then that I noticed all the hickeys she was trying to cover up under her clothes. "I see. Good customer?" I blushed faintly.

"No. Nothing like that. I'm in love. I'm quitting my job and taking another as a stripper." She announced proudly.

I blinked. "Dad'll be proud."

"Oh shit. Dad." All traces of happiness left her and guilt took over her features. "What have I done? Oh my God. He'll so totally kill me if—when he finds out. Oh my God." She buried her face in her hands.

I didn't completely follow her train of thoughts. "For sleeping with one guy? He doesn't seem to mind you doing it for a living. If you love this guy I don't see how Dad could be angry. I'm happy for you." I smiled encouragingly.

"Yeah…I guess…Oh well…What's done is done, and I'm meeting him again tonight." The euphoric grin returned to her face. I was happy that she finally fell in love with someone who could make her happy. She deserved to be like this after what she had gone through in the name of love. If this guy could make my sister happy, he couldn't be all bad.

"You seem really different." I cocked my head slightly. "You haven't used your Valley Girl accent in awhile. This guy's really changed you." A kiddish grin spread across my face.

"You're right…he has…I'd like to think maybe I changed him too. Maybe. But not too much or he might lose all the devilish qualities I love about him." She lapsed back into her dream world, and was lost to the rest of us.

I smiled and got back to my meal. 'I wonder if Lian and I will be like that?'

A small clinking noise of dishes to my left made me jump and jarred my thoughts. I turned and blinked curiously at a petite, pale looking girl, taking a seat next to me. She looked up at me with big, bright, golden eyes. She opened her mouth and her voice sounded like wind chimes being rustled lightly in the breeze. "You are Thorn?"

I nodded, stunned into shocked silence by the emerald-haired girl. Her hair was up in two buns on the side of her head, but somehow she had enough hair left over to have some of it hang down, flowing gracefully down to the middle of her back. She wore a black mandarin shirt and black straight-legged chiffon capris. The darkness of the clothes perfectly set off the paleness of her skin and the lightness of her hair and eyes.

"I see." She knelt next to me at her place at the table. She closed her eyes, ceremoniously popping a pill into her mouth and delicately bringing a glass cup of milk to her lips. She sipped slowly. "I'm lactose intolerant, so in order to drink milk I have to take my medicine."

I nodded, still unable to speak. Perhaps I could have spoken if I wanted to, but I didn't know what to say. I watched her as she took a few small sips of her milk. She didn't look at me, but kept her eyes downward and talked softy so that I had to listen hard to hear her.

"I am Tao Jade by the way. First and only child of Tao Ren and Usui Pilika. Twelve years of age." She set down the cup and saucer of milk and picked up a piece of toast to nibble on.

I blinked, finally finding my voice. "Uh…I'm Asakura Thorn. Second child of Asakura Hao. Sixteen and a half years old." She nodded, assuring me that I had introduced myself correctly even though I had purposely left out my mother's name.

Her lips parted in a small smile. "Though you customarily name your older siblings after you state your parents. You didn't mention your mother by the way."

"Oh." I blinked. "Well, you said you didn't have any siblings, but I know for a fact that you aren't an only child."

Her smile broke and her eyes remained downcast. "I have no brother by name of Akira."

I racked my mind, trying to understand, but the Chinese and their ways are too complicated for me. "I thought—"

"—No. Things aren't that simple. True, Akira and I share both parents by blood, but I cannot say out loud that he is my brother or I shall upset my father. My father and Akira do not get along. They fight constantly whenever they speak, so they just don't talk…for my mother's sake. My father had a similar relationship with his own father. The Taos do not get along with their parents well…Even my mother and I are distant and she is not Tao by blood." Jade sipped delicately at her milk as she spoke softly. The girl truly reminded me of a dove in every aspect of her. All her motions, even the look of her was bird-like.

"I'm sorry." I voiced my condolences awkwardly. What do you say when a total stranger comes up to you and starts talking about private family problems?

"Oh don't be. It's my own fault that my family drifted apart. If I had not have gotten sick maybe we would all still be living together. I have leukemia. Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. I don't have the same blood type as either of my parents, and I needed a bone marrow transplant. Akira and I have the same blood type though. He wanted to be my donor, but…Daddy didn't want him to. Akira was always such a weak child too…very susceptible to disease and viruses and all kinds of stuff. He has a very weak immune system, and the doctors said it wouldn't be a good idea; with all the germs and blood and everything, there was a good chance he might catch some disease. And it would probably kill him. I don't really remember much of it…I was only six at the time, and I was dying. I have a very rare blood type, and there were no donors at the time. Daddy and Akira fought all the time. Akira said that my father didn't care if I died or not, and…well you know that both my father and Akira have extremely volatile personalities…they sort of disowned each other. By the time they found another donor for me, Akira was already living in Japan with Uncle Horo and his daughter Ivory. I wasn't allowed to speak to my brother anymore after that. I still got letters from him every month though. He somehow smuggled them to me, and my servants helped me get letters back to him, so we talked that way, but before he left we were very close. I miss my brother very much."

I was completely floored with information. I couldn't see the Akira I knew doing anything selfless for his little sister. "Maybe I don't know Akira as well as I thought I did…" I muttered under my breath.

Jade smiled and nodded, her golden eyes shining brightly. "He really isn't that cold jerk he pretends to be. You should get to know the real him. He's such a sweetie. Don't tell him I told you though. He wouldn't like it if you knew he writes poetry and cooks. I don't think even Hana-kun knows that, and he would hate me if he knew I told _you._ He likes you, you know." She put a finger to her lips as Akira walked lazily into the room, late to breakfast.

Akira took a seat in-between Jade and me. "Good morning Thorn. How are you feeling?" He asked tentatively.

Jade hovered to the side of us, smiling impishly and watching as one might a soap opera.

"I'm fine, thanks to you. Thank you again by the way." I tried to be civil, feeling indebt to him.

He smiled and blushed. "You're welcome. I'm glad I got there in time."

"I owe you." I tried not to sound as awkward as I felt. "I wish I could repay you somehow."

"You could marry him." Jade intervened, sipping at her milk again.

Both Akira and I blushed. He glared at his little sister. "Jade, you really shouldn't be sitting next to me. Your father might get angry."

"You are the one who sat next to me. I was here first. Maybe you should move because I'm not. Of course, if you still want to talk to her, you could sit on the other side of the pretty girl." Jade made it painfully obvious that she wasn't moving.

Akira blushed even more. I smiled, pleased to be called pretty. Hana came to Akira's rescue, picking up Jade gently and carting her off by where Ivory, Makoto and he were sitting. "Hey Princess! It's been a long time since I last saw you! You're getting heavy."

"Hana-kun!" She kissed him on the tip of his nose and hugged him tightly. "I'm not heavy; you're weak."

"Well then I'll just have to work out later. Want to watch? I'll take my shirt off and everything." Hana, being the lady-killer that he was, winked and grinned widely at the girl.

"Oh I'd like that _very_ much!" Jade hugged him tighter. Ivory glared at the little girl attracting so much attention from Hana.

Akira growled softly under his breath. "Hana get your hands off my sister!"

"No way. She's mine." Hana grinned broadly, kissing Jade's neck playfully. Ivory rolled her eyes.

Akira snorted lightly. "Bastard."

The moment was killed instantly by a loud banging at the front door. Horo Horo got up to answer it, and as he opened the door, he was trampled under the feet of my father's followers. Blocken, the Boz, Han Zang-Chin, Peyote, Turbine, Bill, Luca, Opacho, Mari, Macchi, Kanna, and even Kanna's numerous children were all there. Anna looked upon them in dread; so many more mouths to feed, and all free loading.

Kanna's oldest daughter, Azariel, seemed to catch Hana's eye. He gaped openly at the tall, azure-haired half-angel. Her piercing blue eyes caught his and she smiled warmly at him, reducing him to a puddle of goo on the floor.

I chuckled warmly at my cousin; just getting over him myself, I was happy that he had found someone new.

Ivory elbowed Hana hard in the stomach, knocking him out of his playboyish fantasies.

Hana's grin broke; one of the few times I ever saw him without a smile. He glared sullenly at Ivory. "What was that for?" Hana set down Jade and took a seat next to his Ainu companion.

"You're making goo goo eyes at every woman in this room. It's rude and distasteful, so stop it." The Ainu girl was acting uncharacteristically moody.

"I'm not making goo goo eyes at _every_ woman in the room." My cousin easily laughed his friend off.

"Oh?" She pouted.

"Yeah. I'm not making goo goo eyes at you." The playful grin quickly returned to Hana's face. "You're not jealous are you?"

"No!" Ivory replied too fast.

"Cause we can make out if you'd like…" Hana continued his merciless teasing.

"No, you pimp!" She slapped him hard and ran from the room, bawling.

Makoto, who had been sitting on her lap like a teddy bear, fell to the floor, glad to be released from Ivory, but concerned about his friend.

Hana's grin dropped. He thoughtfully rubbed his cheek as he gazed at the stairwell that Ivory had just run up. His eyes darted indecisively between Azariel and the stairs. He got up and took a hesitant step toward the stairs.

Azariel sauntered seductively over to where Ivory had been sitting by Hana and sat down next to him just as he got up to go after his friend. "So, how old are you?" Her voice was smooth as the surface of a mirror.

Hana completely forgot about Ivory, sinking back into his seat next to the pretty woman. "I'm 19."

Akira rolled his eyes and informed the girl, "He's 17 and three quarters. Hana, go check on Ivory."

My cousin looked apologetically at Azariel as he stood to go after Ivory. "Sorry I really should—"

"Oh please don't leave yet; we've barely had any time to get to know each other. Please don't go?" The sly angel stuck out her bottom lip and made puppy dog eyes at Hana.

He ate it up. "Yes I suppose it would be rude of me to walk out on a lady before we're adequately acquainted." He retook his seat and motioned to the midget next to him. "Hey, Makoto. Be a pal and check on Rory for me; you two are close right?" He didn't skip a beat before turning back to the blue-haired half-angel. "So what's your name? I bet it's heavenly; an angelic name for an angelic woman?"

"Stupid Hana, you tail chasing…. Humph." Akira grunted indignantly as Makoto nodded and ran after Ivory.

Azariel smiled genuinely at the Asakura's overused pick-up line. "Actually, seeing as my father is the angel Raphael, my name would logically be somewhat paradise-related, wouldn't it?"

Hana's eyes widened slightly and his mouth formed an 'Oh' of amazement and awe. "An angel?"

"Half angel." She corrected. "Half wild cat; Kanna is my mother. I am Azariel, the oldest child of the seventeen or so. What of you? What's your name?"

"Hana." The boy was almost breathless as he looked upon her in all her heavenly beauty.

"Flower? Isn't that a girl's name?" Angel girl raised an eyebrow in amusement.

"It's a combination of the 'h' from Yoh, and the 'a-n-a' from Anna. It just so happens to be a girl's name." The words flowed easily out of his mouth, the whole spiel being previously rehearsed and regurgitated for many other curious people before.

"Oh. I see. That's really cute, you know." She paused, playing shamelessly with his bangs. "You're really cute." Azariel leaned in to lock lips with my cousin.

A hand appeared out of nowhere and bopped Azariel on the head. The stunned angel girl looked up into the displeased face of her mother. Kanna took the cigarette out of her mouth long enough to yell at her oldest child. "Aza! Stop seducing every man you see. It's okay to be a little sluty, but come on."

"MOM!" The rebellious teen hissed in embarrassment. "Stop it! It's not my fault I fall in love easily, and being this pretty, it's not that hard to get what I want."

"Rich married men and young handsome ones who you've just met? You're worse than Mari and Macchi! Now, go sit by your brothers and sisters, and, here, take the baby with you." Kanna handed the red headed toddler she had been balancing on her hip to her eldest daughter and shooed the girl off, away from the Asakura boy.

Azariel huffed and pouted to herself as she went off to join her younger siblings.

"Damn kids. I don't know why I had so many. Always trying to better themselves by taking advantage of others." The blue haired smoker muttered to herself, but then turned to Hana, saying, "Sorry about her…pay her no mind; she's a slut through and through, and if even her mother thinks so, it's got to be true. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to take care of another pair of sluts. Where did those two get to?" Kanna wandered off in search of Mari and Macchi.

The pair was heavily flirting with my father. As always. Hao fended off their attention as best as he could as Valerie sat beside him, looking uninterested in the affair going on right underneath her nose.

"HAO-SAMA! Oh Hao-sama I've missed you so!" Macchi attached herself to my father's leg and stroked it feverishly.

"Yeah. Yeah. I missed you too." Hao tried to free himself, but his efforts were wasted upon one of his biggest fangirls.

"Mari missed Hao-sama more!" Mari latched on to Hao's torso, squeezing the life from his body. "She cried every day that she woke and Hao-sama was not lying by her side."

Hao squirmed some more, trying to break away from the girls' amorous grips. "That's very sweet of you Mari. I missed you a lot as well." The Hanagumi girls didn't notice as Hao glanced at Valerie and mouthed, 'Help me!'

She looked away, standing and walking off. "You're fair game. You're a bachelor, remember? I'm not your wife, so there's nothing I can do for you."

He stared at her back as she trudged off. The pained look on his face was enough to tell me he loved her. His eyes were full of desire, but in there also was suffering, agony, and sorrow. I didn't understand why he didn't just tell her.

In any case, Valerie didn't help Hao, and he was still trapped in the arms of Mari and Macchi. Luckily, Yoh came to his brother's rescue. "Hey, Hao? I need to talk to you in private for a moment. Is that okay ladies?"

The Hanagumi glared at Yoh, but reluctantly let Hao go with a little urging from Hao himself. The twins disappeared into the living room, and I shifted my attention to other people at the table.

Luca and Opacho were having a splendid conversation with a furious Anna, explaining how they were early to the party because they wanted to check up on Hao and his drinking problem. Horo and Ren were having a pointless fight. Chocolove was telling Pilika jokes. Kanna was scolding some of her children and Mari and Macchi at the same time. Peyote and Blocken kept to themselves, but Bill was having a friendly conversation with Ryu. Zang-Chin and Turbine covered their ears as the Boz played a rap re-mix of Chimi Chimi Moryo. Jun gossiped with Tamao while Hana entertained Jade. Hoshi was still lost in her dream world, and the Fausts made goo goo eyes at each other. Akira, still sitting next to me, stared down nervously at his tea, stirring it occasionally. The spirits talked animatedly, and Yoh and Manta laughed over some private joke.

"Wait. Didn't Yoh just walk off with my dad?" I looked expectantly at Akira, the only other person in the room not talking to someone else.

"I wasn't paying attention." Was his pathetic reply.

"Oh. I was probably just seeing things then…" I glanced at the doorway my dad had disappeared through. "Yes. That's it."

I followed my little brother as he led me into a remote room of the house. Yoh flopped over onto the couch, making himself completely comfortable, folding his hands behind his head and propping his legs up on the armrest.

I rolled my eyes. "What do you want Lucifer?" I let the words slip tiredly from my mouth.

The guise of my brother faded from the demon, and Lucifer looked up, slightly startled at me. "How'd ya know it was me?"

I took a seat by the window and sighed. "I may be oblivious sometimes, but don't you think I noticed that my little brother was laughing with his human friend at the other end of the table? Didn't you think I may get suspicious since there were two Yohs?"

He blinked. "Uh…sure…actually, _I _didn't notice Yoh sitting there…I guess I'm a little preoccupied." The devil smiled and sighed dreamily.

"Preoccupied? You? How so?" I didn't feel threatened in the least by him, so I allowed myself to turn my back his way.

"Oh. It's nothing." He chuckled to himself, maintaining a love-struck smile on his face. "Just this girl."

"Hmm." I raised my eyebrows slightly. "What's her name?"

"H—no. I shouldn't tell you anything." He looked at me as if considering for a moment, but he easily shook the urge to confess off. "I love her though. I guess you've guessed that I'm over Ivy?" Lucifer jumped randomly from topic to topic. "That's what I came to talk to you about."

I had a hard time keeping everything straight, but after blinking repeatedly and staring stupidly at him for a few minutes, I managed to say, "_What_ about Ivy?"

"I don't love her anymore. You can keep her. Actually, I've not truly been in love with her for a while now. I've been trying to forget about her for a long time, and I think I've finally succeeded now that I found this new woman. I really think that Ivy was just a crush and that this one is _the_ one."

I nodded, not sure what he was getting at. 'Okay, so he's no longer in love with my wife. Great, and why is he telling me this?'

"Things are happening so fast…I'm not really sure, but…I've never felt like this about someone before. I get this dizzying sickness when she looks at me and my heart starts pounding like a stampede of elephants. Last night when I slept with her…it was amazing…. For the first time I felt that maybe things would work out, and that maybe we could be a couple, and maybe it would be okay. I felt like someone cared about me…I felt that she loved me too." He looked up with questioning eyes at me.

'He wants advice.' I opened my mouth to impart some great knowledge upon him _'Don't fall in love. It's not worth all the heartbreak you'll suffer. No woman is worth that.'_, but only the obvious came out. "You're in love."

He smiled and nodded, sitting up on the couch for the first time since we got in the room.

"Does she know you're the Devil?" I looked back over my shoulder at him.

He nodded again, the smile growing. "What do you think? Do I stand a chance if I maybe—say—proposed to her?"

"How old is this woman?" I turned to face him as he racked his brain for a number.

"Uhh…well…ummm…sixteen and a half?" Lucifer bit his lower lip and fidgeted nervously.

"She's a human?" I didn't let any emotion slip into my voice, not wanting to upset him just yet.

"Shaman." He swallowed hard.

"You should wait awhile before you propose. She's still just a girl. It's bad enough that you're sleeping with her…. Maybe wait until she's 18 and then marry her." All traces of a grin evaporated off of Lucifer's face. "Or, if you like, propose now and talk to her about waiting a few years before getting married. If you truly love her, then isn't she worth waiting for?" 'Ivy…'

The smile returned to his face. "Thank you. I'll do that." He got up to leave, but then, as if it was an afterthought, "If she still won't tell you her true identity of her own free will, you could always force her hand."

"What?" I blinked incredulously.

"Ivy." He stated pointedly.

I shook my head. "No. I got that part. What about forcing her hand? What do you mean; how?"

He smirked devilishly and tossed a small, square box to me. I caught it easily. "Propose to Valerie. Ivy will have a fit, and in a moment of rash fear of losing you to her other personality, she'll sing like a bird for you. Thanks again Hao." He winked and was gone in a red puff of smoke.

I coughed as the foggy stuff cleared. 'I hate how he's always doing that…' I looked down at the ring box, deciding to open it. A gorgeous phoenix made out of rubies and emeralds for eyes stared back at me as I opened the lid and gaped at the ring. 'Propose to Valerie? Force her hand…Yes…that might work…' I smiled happily as I walked back to the dinning room.

A few minutes later, my father came back into the room alone and retook his seat. I looked over to where I had earlier seen Yoh and Manta, and sure enough, they were still there gabbing. If Yoh was with Manta, then who was my father with? I didn't have any more time to think about it, for it was time to go to school.

The day slipped quickly by me as the hours of boredom flew by in a whirl. Before I knew it, it was time for musical rehearsal. I was a bit apprehensive about the practice. As I've said before, I'm nervous by nature, and don't do well in new situations. My hands were shaking as I approached the theatre.

"Hey, Thorn." A kind voice from behind me made me jump at least to the ceiling. "Sorry. Didn't mean to startle you." I was surprised to see Akira standing there.

"I…I wasn't scared if that's what you were thinking." I muttered dejectedly, sort of embarrassed that he had made me jump.

"I didn't say that you were scared. I just caught you off guard, that's all. You were thinking about rehearsal weren't you? Nervous? Don't worry; I'm sure you'll be great. They wouldn't have given you the part unless they thought you could handle it." He pushed past me into the theatre, and I was left gaping.

'Since when did he get so nice?' "Hey! Akira!" I called after him, making him peek his head back out the theatre door, a questioning look on his face. "Why are you acting so weird lately? Ever since last night you've been so nice to me. What are you up to?" I glared suspiciously up at him.

He blinked and cocked his head at me. "Last night I realized that I love you." He disappeared back into the theatre and left me completely boggled.

I stared dumbly at the oak doors in front of me. "He…he…"

"He what?" A light-hearted voice from behind me questioned.

My incomplete thoughts were interrupted by my sister. I turned to face Hoshi, only to find her in the arms of some pretty man. I say 'pretty' because that's really what he was, with his eggshell white skin, raven black eyes, and mid-back length crimson hair pulled up in a high pony tail all gave him feminine qualities that were hard not to notice.

I blinked, trying to find words to answer with. "Um…I…who's this Hoshi? He looks familiar." I decided not to answer at all, but pose a question to her instead.

"Him? He's Lucifer. Lucifer…" She looked uncertainly at him.

"…Richardson. Lucifer Richardson. I'm Hoshi's…" He looked uncertainly at her.

"…Boyfriend?" She asked. "Lover maybe?" My sister's gaze shifted between Lucifer and me.

"Both?" He snuck a glance at me to see how I would react to the news.

"Yeah, that sounds right." Hoshi smiled widely at the man of her dreams.

He smiled back and kissed her on the forehead. And again on the cheek. And then the lips. After that it sort of turned into a full-out make-out session.

"Nice to meet you." I nodded and turned away blushing. There was nowhere left to go but into the theatre. I held my breath and stepped inside.

It really wasn't as awful as I thought it would be. The only thing was that I had to kiss Akira. I still can't believe on the first day we had to practice a kissing scene. Some schools don't allow students to practice kissing scenes before they are preformed on opening night, but it seemed that my school wasn't one of those schools. I leaned in slowly to kiss him, and quickly pulled away when he responded to the kiss.

The director shook her head. "No, no. Kiss him like you mean it. It's okay to be timid in practice, but it has to be real, hot, fiery passion for the show. Come on Thorn, you LOVE him!" The old woman was too into it for my taste. I would prefer not kissing Akira unless it was absolutely necessary.

I nodded and we tried the scene again. I still couldn't do it. I couldn't bear to kiss Akira even if he had been nice to me that morning. He had been so awful before, and I just couldn't do it.

The director was about to have a fit. Thankfully, before she exploded at me, Hana jumped up on stage to argue my defense. "Mind if I coach her Mrs. Topplemen?" The tired old woman nodded reluctantly, giving in to Hana's request.

"Go ahead if you think it will help."

My cousin approached me hesitantly. "Hey, Thorn, it would help if maybe you touched him. It's pretty hard to kiss someone decently without having a hand on their waist or around their neck or somewhere, so why don't you put your arms…here…and…here." He placed one of my arms around his neck, and the other under his arm with my hand in the middle of his back. "That comfortable enough?"

Akira and Ivory looked on jealously as I nodded and blushed.

Hana ignored his angry friends and continued my lesson. "Now, lean in and just do whatever feels right. Make sure it looks real though. You can close your eyes if you want and imagine that I'm whoever you want. Just picture that person's face with your eyes closed, and you should be able to kiss anyone. Ready?" He smiled and waited for me to make the first move.

I nodded again and leaned in not as slowly as I had with Akira. I closed my eyes and kissed my cousin. There was a slight murmur when he kissed me back. I could just see Ivory out in the audience fuming, Akira was probably plotting ways of torturing Hana, and Hoshi was sitting wrapped in Lucifer's arms, chuckling softly as her boyfriend/lover nipped gently at her neck.

I pulled away and looked toward the director, blushing my head off. "How was that Mrs. Topplemen?"

"PERFECT!" The woman looked like _she_ wanted to kiss me. "Fabulous! Now, if only you and Akira could kiss with that much passion and realism for our show! Do you think you could try with him? Thank you so much Hana; we really should have cast you as Danny like we originally planned. I don't remember why we chose Akira over you…anyway, do the scene again Thorn with Akira."

Hana looked apologetically at Akira as he took his seat back in the audience next to Ivory. The Ainu, still steamed from that morning, scooted away bitterly as she glared at Hana.

I looked nervously at Akira before saying my line again and leaning in to kiss him. I did as Hana instructed, closing my eyes, wrapping my arms around Akira, and picturing Lian's masked face. For a minute I felt as though I really was kissing the man I was in love with. It felt like his lips, his hands, everything seemed like him and the way it was that night at the masquerade.

I pulled away, blushing again, and looked toward the elderly director. "Mrs. Topplemen?"

"There's hope for this show after all!" The old woman joyously exclaimed, hopping out of her chair to do a jig. "Good job Thorn."

"Thanks. Can I go lie down in the teacher's lounge? I feel really sick." She nodded and I ran out of the theatre, desperate to get as far away from Akira as possible. It was just too scary kissing him and feeling like he really was _him._

The lounge was abandoned since it was after hours, and I had the whole place to myself. I grabbed a pillow, lay down on the couch, and cried. I don't know how long I lay there, but I must have fallen asleep. I awoke as Makoto gently shook my arm.

"Miss Asakura? Miss? Miss Thorn? Thorn, are you okay? Wake up."

My red, puffy eyes slowly opened and I blinked sleepily. "Makoto? What time is it?"

"Oh good. I thought you were really sick Miss Thorn. Don't worry, you've only been gone for fifteen minutes, but Akira was worried about you and since I'm the Stage Manager, he said that no one would question me if I went to check up on you. Oh I shouldn't have told you that it was Akira who asked me to check on you…Well it's not like you're need or anything yet. We're working on the 'Beauty School Drop-Out' scene, and Lucifer is playing the Teen Angel. Hoshi told me to tell you that. Don't you think it's ironic that Mrs. Topplemen would pick Lucifer of all people for the part? But I'm rambling; how are you doing?"

I blinked, rubbing the sleep and dried tears from my eyes. I quickly processed all the information he had thrown at me. "Oh, I'm fine. You can thank Akira for me. As long as they don't need me I'd prefer to lie in here. I'm not feeling well. I'm sure I'll be better soon, but for now…if you please?" I lay back down and closed my eyes.

He nodded and slowly withdrew from the room. "Yes. I suppose it's best if you rest. Feel better Thorn-san." The door softly clicked shut and I was left to my solitude once again. I was glad to be alone.

My happiness was short-lived, for as soon as the door closed behind Makoto, voices from the other side of the wood wafted into the room and intruded upon my ears. "Oh! Akira. What are you doing here?" Makoto's shocked voice echoed into my empty room.

"Is she okay?" The familiar voice of Akira joined Makoto's.

"She says she's fine. I don't think she's telling the truth though." The midget responded. There was a pause. "She's sleeping, and I think she wants to be left alone, so I really wouldn't if I were you Akira."

Akira had stepped toward the door and placed his hand upon the knob. "I need to speak with her, so if you don't mind Makoto."

I inferred that Makoto had stepped in front of the Tao, blocking the doorway. "It's not a good idea. She'll get angry, and Miss Thorn is very scary when she's angry, especially when she's mad at you."

I glanced through the glass panel on the door and saw as Akira lifted Makoto by the scruff of the neck and set him aside. "Thanks for the warning, but I _have_ to talk to her. Come and get me when they need me."

I shut my eyes tight and feigned sleep. The door opened and I could sense Akira sitting in the chair next to me. I tried to keep my cool façade and pretend to be sleeping.

He wasn't fooled. "Hey Thorn. Are you feeling okay?"

I reluctantly opened my eyes and sat up. He took the seat next to me on the couch and looked me over. "I'm fine." I mumbled.

"No you're not. What's the matter? You're not really sick." I couldn't hide anything from him.

But that didn't keep me from trying. "I said, 'I'm fine.'"

He tilted my chin upwards so I would be forced to look at him. "I heard the words leave your mouth, but that doesn't mean the words are true. Something's wrong. Care to tell me what that something is?"

I jerked my head away from his grasp. I did not enjoy being handled by him. "Please leave me alone Akira."

"Did you know you've only directly called me by name five times? Once when you were about to be raped, again when you were thanking me for saving you, then again when last night you said, 'Goodnight Akira.' The fourth time was when you were trying to get my attention earlier today outside the theatre, and then once more right now."

I gaped at him.

He sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. "Yes, I counted, but don't you find if funny that you've called me by name five times in the past twenty-four hours? If you've never done something before, but then all of the sudden you make a habit of it, doesn't that mean something? Maybe that we're getting more comfortable with each other or that maybe you're warming up to me?"

I looked away again, chills running up and down my spine. "Look, I'm fine will you just leave me alone now? I'm just a little sick, that's all."

"You don't want to kiss me, do you? Is that it?" He didn't sound disappointed like I would have expected.

"That's not exactly it…" I hesitated to describe to him what 'exactly' it was.

"But it's part of it. You don't have any feelings for me, and you don't want to kiss me." His voice remained level.

"It's not—"

"Don't start with me Thorn, that's exactly what it is. Don't even bother to say you're sorry for not loving me after I confessed my love for you. I don't want any pity. I'm perfectly fine with you being in love with someone else. Yes, I know all about you and Dao Lian. If your heart already belongs to him, then I'm fine with it. Have fun with Lian at the party this weekend." He got up and left, leaving me, again, totally stupefied.

I couldn't make heads or tails of him. He acted like a complete jerk to me one day, but the next he was completely mellow and sort of sweet. Then all of the sudden he says he loves me. When I don't return his love because I'm already in love with another guy he says that it's fine and he doesn't care. It was at that time when I realized I could never understand men. They are far too complex creatures, more so than the Chinese. I would never understand their motives, but that didn't stop me from trying. I sat there and mauled over the human puzzle-box that was Tao Akira.

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Mikau: Okay, pretty much after next chapter the story kind of picks up pace and everything happens one thing right after the other, and some things happen at the same time, and it's really confusing. Plotting, confessions, betrayal, and all that jazz. As I say this, I'm looking at my forever changing outline and groaning, thinking 'Why did I cram so many complexities into one story? Was I trying to make it hard on myself?' Yeah, so I've got my work cut out for me if I hope to make the rest of this story up until the end understandable. Whatever happens, bear with me and don't shoot me. Please?

Thanks To: kari tao(ren's little sister), GothicShamaness13, MaiValentinefan, HAO-Addictive, Untitled Sorrow, demon thing, isa18, Kiva Kyoyama, knux33, KaZuYa MiNeKuRa, Firebane5, Touch of the Wind, Andrea Nefisto, LilacBreeze, clamp school, thoughtless dreamer, Sonseray, Dannie, and Tippy-chan.

To Tippy-chan: TIPPY! -Glomps- I've missed you sooooooo much! I'm doing pretty well. Well, as well as one can do when one is sick. Oh well. It's okay to be lazy every once in awhile, but try not to do it too often because I miss you when you're gone. I'm glad you like the story and my OCs; I'm having a lot of fun writing. Good luck getting in to the high school you want! When will you know if you made it in?

PLEASE REVIEW!


	39. Sisterly Advice

Mikau: Hello everyone! I've really missed being able to work on this fic. I have hardly been able to touch my computer since the last time I updated. My health is doing better since last time though. I went to the doctor's the other day and she said I was making a nice recovery. I still feel a little sickly though. I should be fine. The reason I haven't been on my computer is that I have play practice everyday after school from 3:30 ish to 7:00 ish. Sometimes we start earlier, sometimes we end later. After rehearsal I go home, do homework, then sleep. It's a tough existence, but I'm doing pretty well I guess. I miss being able to type all the time.

**_Disclaimer:_** I don't own Shaman King.

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Sisterly Advice

We had a musical rehearsal the next day on Thursday, and then again the day after that on Friday. I avoided Akira as much as possible. I didn't feel comfortable being around him. Whenever we did have to speak I was civil, but my heart wasn't really in it. My mind was on other things: Lian. I was so excited about seeing him again, this time without the mask; sure the party was another masquerade, but Lian had promised to take his mask off for me if I took off mine as well.

It was Friday night, around six thirty, and I was sitting in my sister's room on her bed. Hoshi was working on some technical-looking scientific or medical texts that she had borrowed from Dr. Faust. She bit the inside of her cheek and pushed her reading glasses up further on her nose. I watched as she got up from her desk and walked over to the bookshelf, pulling out a gigantic medical dictionary and skimming its contents.

I took a deep breath and gathered my courage. "Hoshi?"

"Hmm?" My sister didn't bother looking up from her complicated reading material.

I felt faint, but I had to go through with this. "Do you have a spare condom I could maybe have?" I held my breath and waited for her answer.

She stopped in the middle of turning a page. Her eyes were burrowed deep into the book, and she stood there, staring, for almost a minute before she made sense of what I had asked. She looked up at me and blinked. Once. Twice. "What?" She scrunched her nose and furrowed her brow.

I looked down at my hands. "Never mind. Of course you wouldn't have any of those lying around. With your line of work you wouldn't use a—are you sure you don't have any?" I chanced a glance at my older twin.

"Why?" She kept the same puzzled look on her face.

"Well…tonight…" I swallowed hard. 'God this is so hard…' "Well I'm going to see Lian right? I thought that maybe we could—"

"—Hold that thought." Hoshi snapped her dictionary shut, closed and locked her door, and took off her reading glasses, discarding them on her desk. She came over and sat down on the bed in front of me. "What are you thinking? Thorn, tell me, what on earth is going through that head of yours?"

"Well…uh…Hoshi, I love him. I'm pretty sure this is what I want." I swallowed and watched her face very carefully, observing any eye movement or change in facial expressions. Those were the only clues I had to what Hoshi was thinking.

My sister nodded and smiled. She looked down her nose at me like I was a naïve child. "And what are you planning on doing when you get pregnant?"

I blinked, taken aback. "Isn't that what condoms are for?"

She rolled her eyes and laughed off my remark. "You are aware that those don't work, aren't you?"

This was news to me. "T-they don't?" I visibly paled.

She laughed cheekily at my inexperience and threw a pillow at me. "Nope. And of course you know all about how this Lian of yours will deny being the father. He'll insist that you're a whore and that the kid isn't his. You'll be all on your own with a baby. What will Dad think? Oh, and good luck finishing school with a kid. And you'll have to find a babysitting service to take care of it while you work at some fast food restaurant during the day and on weekends. I suppose you'll marry some half-wit drunk, probably a good fifteen years older than you. His first wife will probably have died in childbirth, and he wants some pretty young thing to sleep with. You'll have no other suitors since young hott guys don't want damaged goods with baggage, aka: children. If you think that scenario sounds bad, listen to this: say you get pregnant, panic, and have an abortion. Thousands of things can go wrong. You could bleed out on the table, or worse, end up sterile. If you do get through the abortion okay, then what? You just killed an innocent child. Murder, Thorn, in the worst way possible. Do you want to live with that on your shoulders for the rest of your life?" Seeing that she had done enough damage, my twin stopped talking and waited for my reflection thoughts on what she had said.

By that point, my face was chalk white and my body shaking. "It's not really like that…is it?" I swallowed. My eyes were still wide from her chilling description.

"No. But did I scare you enough to make you have second thoughts about going through with it?" Her cheeky smile remained as she laughed at my gullibleness.

I sighed in relief. "Definitely." I hugged the pillow she had thrown at me earlier to my chest and poised myself to ask another question. Sexual intercourse is a topic I'm not entirely comfortable talking about even with my twin sister. "What is it like then?"

Hoshi bit her lip and looked me over, gauging what I could handle. "Seriously?"

I nodded.

"It depends." She lay down on her side facing me, and I did the same.

"On what?" I barely whispered.

"Well…the guy, the circumstances, the place…everything. They say you'll never forget your first time, so I suppose it's really important, but I can't help but feel robbed of that experience. My _first_ time was nothing special, and after that for money I was scared at first, but after a month it got to be almost mechanical…." She chewed on her lip, searching for the right words.

"What about your very first time?" I too bit my lip. I knew I was treading on thin ice talking about the rape with Hoshi, but I just had to know. What had happened to her that made her the way she was? One event had shaped the rest of her life. With what I was planning, I was worried that my case may be the same as hers, a few minutes changing everything. Didn't I deserve to be prepared?

"Oh…that…well…" I watched her bright cerulean eyes dart back and forth, searching for words yet again. "I don't remember…"

I opened my mouth to ask how she could forget something as terrifying as that, but she spoke first, cutting me off.

Her eyes glazed over as she struggled to recall the events of that night so long ago. "I know it seems like you'd remember being raped, but…I don't. Not really. Sometimes…when someone's been through an extremely traumatic event, they tend to white it out of their memory. You read the diary, ne? I'm not sure what all they put Judo through, but she got to the point where she could edit her memories like a word document on the computer. Judo was truly even more powerful than Ivy in that way. She could effectively manipulate things in a way that would be impossible for anyone else…I've sort of blotted that event out of my life. I remember Damien taking me out to dinner…then all of the sudden we were in this weird room and…he forced me down under him on the bed and ripped my clothes off…I was only thirteen and he raped me…I don't remember much." Her eyes came back into focus and she glanced at me as if entreating as to whether or not she had properly answered my questions.

I nodded. "I'm sorry for asking." I gulped, slightly nervous and uncomfortable.

"It's okay." She rolled over on her back and sighed up at the ceiling. "I'd rather you asked so you don't repeat my mistakes."

I copied my sister's motions, rolling onto my back as well. "Does it hurt?"

She glanced at me out of the corner of her eye. She nodded. "Yeah, but only the first couple times. You'll get used to it eventually."

"I heard some of the girls at school say it's wonderful…you don't seem to enjoy it that much." I nibbled lightly on my bottom lip.

"It depends." She anticipated my next questioned, but answered it anyway. "On if you love the guy or not. When I was on a job I didn't even know the guy, so it was just physical sex. There's nothing attached…no feelings, no nothing. It didn't mean anything. We were just going through the motions and there was no love…just…I don't know…nothing. But when I sleep with Lucifer…" Just his name on her lips was enough to make her break out in a smile. "God, how do you describe it? It is wonderful. I feel like—I know that someone out there cares for me. He loves me. It's not just the physical act of it…it's what's happening on so many different levels. Unlike the other guys, he cares. He doesn't want to hurt me. He isn't just sleeping with me because he feels like it. It's not just for pleasure like those pigs at work…it's about love. And while it's happening I feel so connected to him. Not just physically, but emotionally too…and spiritually…and so many other ways I can't even begin to explain. It really is beautiful when you do it for love. And it's not just the sex; it's afterwards too…lying there with your head on his chest, or his on yours. And he smiles at you and chuckles. He says he loves you and your heart liquefies. And you talk…about anything really. Sometimes Lucy just goes on about how beautiful I am. And he holds me. And I hold him. And you talk and just fall asleep like that."

She blinked, as if coming out of a deep trance. "Sorry; I didn't mean to talk so much. You probably got more than you bargained for didn't you?"

"It's okay." I smiled sheepishly. "I'm really glad you told me. I don't know anything, and at first when I was thinking about it, I was really scared, but now…I feel better about it. I'm sort of looking forward to tonight." I smirked as her grin faltered.

Hoshi gaped at me, propping herself up on one elbow. "Wait. What? I thought I convinced you that you shouldn't go through with this."

"Actually, you convinced me that I _should_ go through with it. I love Lian like you love Lucifer. Hosh, we're twins; we're the same age, and I figure Lucifer and Lian are both around eighteen years old right? I think since the circumstances are so similar, it'll work out, right?" I smiled unblinking at my sister as she gaped.

She shut her mouth and bit her lip. "Thorn, the circumstances have almost nothing in common. Lucifer isn't eighteen. He hasn't been for thousands of years. You _do_ know who he is, don't you?"

I blinked. My sister wasn't making any sense. "_Thousands_ of years?"

"Think about it." She smiled slyly.

"Wait. Not THAT Lucifer?" My twin nodded, chuckling at my bug-eyed expression. "HOSHI! But he's—! Oh my God!"

"I know. Isn't it great?" Her peals of laughter seemed to grow louder.

Again, she floored me. "But…but…but he seemed so nice?" I sat up on the bed and gazed nervously at her as she lay on her back laughing.

She looked up at me and smiled. "He is. He really isn't the demon people make him out to be. Actually, Lucifer is the younger brother. His older sibling, Damien, is the real devil. He gave the job to Lucy a couple hundred years back when he got sick of running the underworld. Lucy is sort of the victim. His brother has framed him several times already for horrible things…" Her smile fell slightly and she sighed.

"What is Dad going to say when he finds out about you and the Devil?" I chewed on the inside of my cheek, worried about my sister's future.

"Well, he's either going to kill me, Lucy, or himself. I…I'm not sure how long I can keep Lucifer a secret from Dad, but…when he does find out—God, Thorn; I don't know what I'm gonna do." Hoshi didn't seem frantic in the least bit. She was calm and collected.

"You'll think of something." She didn't need any comforting, but I consoled her anyway.

She folded her legs under her and resituated herself on the bed. Finding the bed uncomfortable, she stood and started pacing about the room, gathering all the items she needed to get ready for the extravagant party we were suppose to be having in a matter of hours. "So are you still so sure about sleeping with A—…Lian tonight?"

I watched her as she thumbed through her wardrobe and jewelry. "I…not so much so now. I'm sort of confused about what I really want. You and I both know I'm no good at making decisions, and now I'm afraid that I'm going to be making a decision that could alter the course of my life, and I'm scared Hoshi. I don't know what I should do. I'm scared that I'll make a mistake and mess up the rest of my life like you di—" I had gotten so worked up spilling my worries to her that I had accidentally said too much.

Hoshi halted her movements and sighed.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to say that you ruined your life. I only meant that…. I'm sorry." I lowered my gaze and nervously twiddled my fingers.

"It's okay. It does seem like I've ruined my life so far, doesn't it? I don't think I have though. I'm still going to be a doctor. I don't have to be a surgeon; Faust said that I could be an on-site consultant. I wouldn't actually get to touch the patients and stuff, but I'd still be saving lives. And even my love life isn't a total loss; I have Lucifer, and we're madly in love. I personally think my life is going fine. Moving in with Yoh and Anna was a good idea. It seems to be doing all of us some good." She let me know all was forgiven when she smiled brightly again.

"Yes. I suppose it is doing us all some good." I kept my eyes down; still waiting for some much needed advice.

"Well, first let's start with why you should sleep with him." It was as if she could skim my very thoughts for information.

"I don't know…isn't that what you do when you love someone?" I blinked cluelessly.

She abandoned her outfit search to sit back down on the bed with me. "God help you; you really have no idea how the real world works. NO you don't HAVE to sleep with someone just because you love them. Wait until you're married."

"You're not married." I objected.

"I'm older than you." She argued back.

"By three minutes." I pouted.

She looked away. "A couple hundred years ago they used to burn witches at the stake. Most of the people they hung and burned were innocents, but they did get a few real witches. They murdered women, men, and children; anyone suspicious, and suspicious could mean anything from someone who kept too many cats for pets to someone who was slightly off or eccentric. Some shamans, including my family were killed. I was only six…they saw me talking to some ghosts and that was the end of me. That was my first life. This is my second. My soul is older than yours."

"Oh." I mouthed. "Like dad…?"

"Yeah. I died too young with unfinished business, so I reincarnated." She shrugged. "Anyway, that's all I remember really from my first life, so enough about that, and back to your life. Any other good reasons for sleeping with him?"

"I…well…I—"

"—That's what I thought." She smirked. "So, take my advice and wait until you're older." Hoshi gently ruffled my hair and went back to getting ready for the party.

I nodded, getting up and joining her searching for a dress or something for myself. Nothing in her closet looked usable, not for me anyway. "So what are you wearing tonight?" I ventured.

She pulled out a red outfit from the back of her closet. It looked like a bunch of satin scarves more than clothing. She held the cloth up to her body and modeled the belly dancer's outfit. "What do you think?"

"Lucifer will definitely enjoy it." I smiled sheepishly.

"I know." My twin smiled happily as she changed into her costume.

I returned my attention to the closet. "What are you going to use for a mask?"

"Look." I glanced back over my shoulder at her. She had a dark red scarf hooked behind her ears, covering from the tip of her nose down to two inches below her chin. I gaped at her; she looked magnificent. "And what did you have in mind for yourself sis?"

"Uh…Actually…I have no idea. Any suggestions?"

She turned me about and inspected me. "Hmm…no, but I know someone who might." She smoothed the wrinkles in her clothes and primped her appearance before calling softly, "Lucifer!"

I jumped as a red puff of smoke poofed into the room. Out of the smoke walked the form of my sister's boyfriend. He looked like James Bond dressed in a white tuxedo and wearing a half-face opera mask. Lucifer didn't seem to notice that I was in the room; he was too busy staring at Hoshi in her costume. "Well, well, well." He circled her like a vulture, inspecting her risqué outfit. "Don't you look gorgeous." He took her possessively in his arms, a lustful look in his eyes.

Hoshi smiled flirtatiously and gave Lucifer an appraising look. "And you're look especially handsome, but I just put these clothes on, and I'm not taking them off just yet." She played teasingly with one of his loose hanging bangs.

"Oh you take the fun out of everything Hosh." The demon in human guise pouted as he nibbled hungrily at my twin's neck.

"Oh stop it." Giggling, she playfully pushed him away. "That's not why I called you here, and you know it. I happen to know you were listening in to my conversation with my sister."

Lucifer smiled sheepishly, nervously chuckling. "Caught red-handed yet again. What did you want me to do Hosh?"

Hoshi motioned for me to come stand by her. I cautiously approached, wary of the demon standing so close to my sister. "Lucy, I have no idea what she's going to wear tonight, but she has to look spectacular. Is there anything you could do?"

"Please don't call me Lucy…" Lucifer pouted.

"You call me 'Hosh'." My twin argued.

"Yeah, yeah, fine." He snorted indignantly.

"Can you help or not?" Hoshi, forever the businesswoman, spoke semi-sharply, not wanting to wait any longer than she had to.

"Of course I can. I _am_ Lucifer after all." The demon snapped his fingers and my clothes changed in the blink of an eye. "There. What do you think of that?"

I squealed in terror. He had me dressed in a form-fitting black dress with slits up the thighs, a plunging neckline, and no back.

"It's perfect!" Hoshi beamed at me.

I gaped at her incredulously. "You expect me to wear THIS! I'm naked!"

Lucifer rolled his eyes. "_Almost_ naked. Boys like that. You know, it would be really hott if you showed a bit more cleavage." He snapped his fingers again, and even more of my clothing disappeared.

I shrieked. "What will my father think when he sees me like this!"

"Don't worry," My sister wrapped an arm around me. "He'll be too busy with Valerie to even notice you."

I snorted softly, not caring for my current situation. "I'm NOT wearing this." I looked pointedly at Lucifer, glaring at him. "Don't you have something else I could wear? Something that's more covering?"

Lucifer looked hesitantly at Hoshi, waiting for orders. My sister gave the nod and the King of the Underworld snapped his fingers again.

This time I was in a floor-length pink dress with poofy sleeves and a chain of stars draped around my waist. Two golden stars hung heavily from my ear lobes, and different shades of yellow and blue stars dotted my hair. Upon my head was a diamond tiara decorated with—what else—stars. A half-faced opera mask covered around my eyes and the bridge of my nose.

I looked scandalously at my sister. "It's pink."

Hoshi heaved a loud, exasperated sigh. "Deal with it. You can wear this outfit tomorrow, but you need something different and more showy for tonight. Lucifer?" With a sweet smile in the direction of her boyfriend, Hoshi ordered a new outfit.

"I'm on it." With another snap, a different outfit appeared; this one was white.

All white except the golden circlet atop my head. My hair hung in perfect banana curls interwoven with strands of diamonds, and my white opera mask even had small diamonds and rubies embedded in it. Red and silver glitter made the mask sparkle and glimmer when light touched it. My lips were painted pale wine red, and a slight accent of pink had been added to my cheeks in the form of blush. I stared stupidly at my reflection in the mirror. Everything about the costume, down to the diamond choker, was wonderful. It looked somewhat like a white cocktail dress with the sleeves starting at the shoulders, but the skirt of the dress was made of some silky smooth material I had never seen before. The skirt billowed out and moved with the wind. The most impressive thing about the outfit, thought, was the wings on my back. They looked almost real.

I turned toward Lucifer. "An angel?"

He nodded. "Though that's not exactly what angel females look like nowadays. Humans tend to stereotype, and really that look was the trend hundreds of years ago. We don't all wear that. We're more modern looking now. We wear blue jeans and stuff like you do." He smiled at his work. "What do you think Hoshi?"

My sister nodded and smiled approvingly. "I think we're ready to go to the party now." She glanced in the mirror, fixing her hair one last time before unlocking the door and heading downstairs, Lucifer following behind her like a pet dog.

I smiled at the cuteness of their relationship. 'I want that for Lian and myself. I want to be happy like that.' I glanced at myself in the mirror, still in awe.

I didn't notice my sister peeking her head back in the room and looking worriedly at me. "Thorn?"

I jumped at the increase in the noise level of the room. "Y-yes Hoshi?"

"Be careful. And try not to do anything…stupid." And with that she disappeared back down the stairs.

With one last backwards glance at the mirror, I took a deep breath and descended the stairs as well.

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Mikau: I'm really unhappy with this chapter. I'm not sure why, but I really detest it. It's not very long, and it's not very good. Sure it has its poetic moments, but…I have no clue. It just bugs me somehow. Oh well. Next chapter should be more fun. You know, I reread the first 50 something chapters of I,SR awhile ago, and I realized I've grown so much as a writer since then. Thanks for all being great reviewers. It has really helped me. I have to get to class now, so I can't respond to reviews. (Gomen nasai gozaimasu!) Thank you to all of those who reviewed!

PLEASE REVIEW!


	40. The Party Begins

Mikau: There is a good reason why I haven't updated in forever. Someone reported two of my fics, one week after the other, so my account has been frozen for awhile, and I can just now update again. And yes, I,SR was one of my fics that was taken down, so if you want to read it, you'll have to find me on MediaMiner.

**_Disclaimer:_** I don't own Shaman King.

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The Party Begins

"Hana, hand me the hair gel." Akira stood fidgeting nervously in front of my bedroom mirror.

I put down the bright red lipstick I had borrowed from Ivy and tossed Ryu's hair gel to my friend. "I don't see why you're so nervous. It's not like she's going to notice if a few hairs are out of place." I picked the lipstick back up and carefully started applying a layer to my lips.

"Look Hana," The Tao's tone turned sharp. "Why didn't you tell me it was Thorn?"

My hand jerked at his words, and a red streak trailed down my face from my lips to my chin. "What?"

"Don't play dumb; just tell me why you lied to me." He smoothed the spike of his hair down with several fluid motions. Akira didn't sound angry anymore. There was more of a pleading tone to his voice.

"I…" I couldn't think of what to say. "Listen. You do know that I was in love with her, ne?"

He nodded briefly.

I chewed on my lip, turning away from my friend and wiping the lipstick off my face. Our eyes briefly connected in the mirror. I looked away, unable to meet his gaze. "I'm sorry. I don't think I'm allowed to tell you anything." I pretended to be concentrating hard on applying the red gunk to my lips.

"Since when do you have to ask permission to talk flower boy?" My friend mocked me.

I bit down hard on my lip, longing to tell him of all the plans Hoshi and I had made in secret, but I knew my cousin would kill me if I ruined her plans. But then a thought came to me: Hoshi hadn't planned for Akira to figure out Thorn's identity just yet, so in theory, her plans had already been ruined, so what harm would I do if I further informed my friend?

I smiled, finally able to look him in the eye. "Actually, Hoshi and I—well, mainly Hoshi; I'm just her henchman—have been plotting to set you up with Thorn ever since Hao was in the hospital a couple months ago. She never tells me exact details, but she tells me more or less what to do. She said it was essential that you not find out about Thorn until you were absolutely ready. I think that she thought that you wouldn't let yourself fall for Thorn, but you would willingly give up your heart to a mystery girl who you'd never seen the face of. I think she's right; it worked didn't it? Don't you love Thorn?"

He glared at his reflection in the mirror. "Of course. It doesn't matter that my unnamed girl ended up being Thorn. I am a little disappointed that Thorn is the girl I've been lusting after this whole time, but I can get over that eventually. Despite my grudge against her multiple personalities, I think that physically she's very attractive, and I wouldn't mind making her mine. Now I'm just scared that Thorn would be opposed to the fact that her precious Lian is really plain, old Akira." He looked briefly over his shoulder at me. "I'm scared that she won't want me anymore."

"She's not that fickle." I finished up my makeup and put on my navy blue and pastel yellow kimono.

Akira blinked as he gaped at me. "Dude, you just completely killed the serious discussion the moment you put on that dress. When did you become a cross-dresser?"

A low growl crawled up my throat. "It's my costume for the party." I slipped on my starry blue mask and hmphed indignantly.

"Right." He slapped me hard on the back. "Admit that you like it, flower girl."

"Oh like you look any better in that knight in shinning armor costume. You _do_ know how clichéd that is don't you?" I smirked heavily at my friend as I piled my hair on top of my head in mock-geisha style.

I received a bored stare from Akira. "Oh like I care if it's clichéd; that's why I'm wearing it. You know, the scary thing is that you actually look like a real girl in that get-up. An attractive one at that." His lips peeled back to reveal two rows of ivory-white teeth and a flirtatious grin.

The sick way that he looked at me made me shudder. "You and your cousin...tsk, tsk, tsk." I glared at him. "You know, it's not funny when you're the one hitting on me."

"I'm sure it's no—" The whole house lurched as something in the basement exploded…or maybe it imploded; I'm not sure which. Anyway, both Akira and myself were thrown to the floor with me landing on top.

For a minute the both of us were so shocked that we were stunned speechless. "GET OFF OF ME!" Akira screeched at the top of his lungs, apparently not too speechless.

I rolled over off of him and to the side, still gaping. "I thought that Ivy gave up on that."

"You're not making any sense." Akira got to his feet, brushing himself off. "What's all this about that woman?"

I looked up at him with wide eyes. "Her experiments. You know, making a fully functioning body? She told me a few nights ago that she was sick of it. She said she was quitting, and whenever her present body stopped working she would finally leave this world."

"So?" Akira wasn't at all fazed by my words.

I jumped to my feet. "SO! That means she leaving us soon!"

He brushed me off as if it were nothing. "Yes, yes; I understand that. What I mean is: what does that even remotely have in common with the house shaking?"

"Are you DENSE!" I scooped up a discarded sock off the floor and threw it at him. "The house shook because of an explosion. There was an explosion because Ivy blew something up down in the lab. She blew something up down in the lab because she's probably trying to create a new body for herself. Why did she suddenly change her mind about giving up?"

Akira's icy eyes locked on mine with a burning intensity. "She's dying slowly you know. Anna's killing her. By not letting her confess to Hao, I mean. Not that Ivy would confess even if Anna let her. Ivy is too scared to say anything to Hao. She loves him, and that has completely clouded her common sense, what little she had in the first place. It doesn't surprise me that she wants more time with him. She wants to be alive again so they can be together; it's quite obvious to even someone as DENSE as me. Don't you see all the trickery and plotting going on right in front of your eyes? All of this is worse than a thousand years ago in the Heian courts! Anna has sided herself with Lucifer in order to get Hao and Ivy back together, but Anna won't let them dive right back into a relationship. If they get together, they'll be doing it by Anna's rules. She's the puppet-master here. We're all her playthings. Also, Hoshi's no better setting Thorn and me up this way; she means well, but she too has allied herself with the devil. What kind of way is that to live? You're her doll too, Hana. I know you're not stupid; I know you know you're being used. You're letting her use you. I don't know why, but I have a hunch it's because you still care about Thorn and want to see her in good hands. Personally, I don't think that I was a very good choice if you wanted to see her taken care of. Also I love how you are all blind to what's really happening. I'm blind, you're blind, Thorn, Hoshi, Ivy, Anna, Hao! We're blind! Why can't you see it? Am I the only one who sees the truth? We're all being used, and no one realizes it."

I didn't say a word. He wasn't mad, just very worked up about the subject. I really couldn't think of anything to say. I opened my mouth, perhaps to voice my agreement with his spirited monologue, but no words formed.

"I may be blind, and I may be dense, Hana, but I see and know more than all the rest of you put together." And he left.

I let out the breath I'd been holding. Akira had a rather volatile disposition, and I didn't know what to say or, rather, what not to say in order to keep from setting him off. "Well, that went well." I glanced in the mirror one last time to check my makeup, and seeing that everything was in order, I went downstairs where the Masquerade Ball was already in full swing.

I spotted Akira—Lian—talking to Hoshi, Lucifer, and Thorn off by the DJ. It looked as if Lian was trying to pick a fight with the demon, but Lucy just laughed the Tao off, further antagonizing the purple haired shaman. Hoshi scolded at her boyfriend, and Thorn tried to smooth Lian's ruffled feathers.

I smiled and laughed at the ridiculous look of the scene, but soon got over my fit of giggles when I saw my best friend, the computer nerd, trying to flirt with a gorgeous woman by the punch bowl. I made my way over to Makoto and the girl.

He was dressed as Ichigo from Bleach, and she looked beautiful in a long, mandarin-style Chinese dress. The bright green dress contrasted perfectly with her fire-red hair.

I walked up to them just as the girl walked away. "Just one dance, please!" My friend called after her. Seeing that the woman had no intention of giving in to his request, Makoto sighed dejectedly and slunk over to grab a cup of punch.

"You are aware that someone probably already spiked that, aren't you?" I warned teasingly just as he was about to take a sip.

The sudden intrusion of my voice startled him, causing my vertically challenged friend to jump and almost spill his drink. The glasses wearing midget looked up scandalously at me. "Uh, what did you say Miss?"

I blinked. "Huh? Oh! The kimono and makeup! Makoto, don't be ridiculous; it's me! Hana!" I shone my charming smile downward at my buddy.

He looked back up at me incredulously. "HANA! Why do you look like a geisha! You could have picked any other costume, but you chose to go as a girl? I really don't understand the way you think."

"No one does." My smirk spread from my face to his. "So you like that girl?"

He nodded sheepishly. "I have for awhile; do you think that's wrong?" He nervously chewed on his bottom lip.

I took a good look at her; she was stunning. "Why would that be wrong? I think she's a total babe."

"Really? Well, I love her and she's never going to notice me…I'm going to go sit on the sidelines until someone asks me for a dance…Ha! As if." My friend started to slink off in the direction of the benches.

I caught his shoulder and held him back. "Wait here. I'll get her to dance with you."

The incredulous look returned to his face. "REALLY? You'd do that for me Hana-kun!"

"Of course. We've been buddies for forever, and it's my job as your friend to look out for you and protect you from heartbreak." I spotted the girl and walked over to her. "Hello."

She glanced up at me for a fraction of a second, but her gaze soon reburied itself into the floor. "What do you want?"

"I'm hurt madam; all I wanted was a dance for my friend over there." I motioned toward Makoto. "It seems he's fallen for you, and I don't blame him; you're possibly the most entrancing woman here." I took a seat next to her and smiled my most charming grin.

"Oh really? So I dye my hair and dress up and then you'll look at me? Is that the way it is Hana?" The girl looked up at me and glared. I got a good look at her face for the first time.

"IVORY! What are you?—I thought that you were—Why did you dye your hair?" I was absolutely dumbstruck by the appearance of my friend. She looked like…a girl. A real girl, not the usual tomboy that I had befriended long ago.

"Baka. Is that all you have to say? No compliments on the new look? No 'wow you look nice'? I dyed my hair because I thought that it might get your attention." She gazed down sadly at the floor.

"Why would you want to get _my_ attention?" I blinked stupidly, not exactly sure what she meant.

"Because I like you idiot." She mumbled sullenly.

I chuckled lightly. "Well duh; we're friends. Of course you like me and I like you too, otherwise we wouldn't hang out together."

The volume of her voice decreased further, and took on a dark tone. "Not like that Hana."

I hung my head and sighed. "I know." There was no use hiding the fact that I knew. "I know that you like me."

I saw her eyes light up for a second and instantly regretted what I was about to tell her.

"But I don't like you that way. Makoto loves you though. Will you please dance with him? Just once Ivory, that's all I'm asking." I couldn't look at her. I didn't want to see her tears. Instead I looked out at the sea of people on the dance floor.

"Fine. I'll give shorty a dance. Since that's _all_ you're asking for. It doesn't matter that you just turned me down, or that you can't fall in love with me, but you get the hotts for your own cousin!" Ivory's eyes burned a hole through my skull.

She was angry with me, and she had every right to be. I had been horrible to her, and I didn't even deserve her forgiveness, but I saw no harm in asking. "I'm sorry. Do you hate me?"

"No, baka. I don't hate you. I just hate you that's all." She smiled, walked over to Makoto, and asked him for a dance.

I knew she was still hurt and heartbroken and angry with me, but there was nothing I could do about it. I couldn't make myself unhappy by agreeing to go out with her, so she had to get over me on her own and deal with it by herself. I wished that there were someway that I could help, but I knew that there wasn't.

"Hey, Hana!" I looked up as my father called to me. "Have you seen Ivy?"

"No. Why?"

"Oh, no reason. Anna told me to find her and see if she was okay." Yoh half-smiled at me, something obviously distracting him.

"I heard that explosion a little while ago. Do you think it was her?" The house had been relatively quiet after the explosion; no yelling or screaming, just a whole lot of nothing. Usually something like that would draw attention to itself, or Ivy would come up from the basement coughing and complaining, but I hadn't heard a peep out of her. 'Something must be wrong.'

The younger Asakura twin rubbed the back of his neck thoughtfully. "I'm thinking it most definitely was Ivy who caused the explosion, but no one's seen her since, sooooo…I don't know. My orders were to check up on her, so I'm trying to find her. Let me know if you see her—or, better yet, if you see her, tell her to come find me, then it will be her problem to deal with, and I won't have to keep up this searching." I smiled as my father walked off chuckling to himself. I shook my head and smiled.

My smile faded as soon as I got out of range of Hana. In truth I was really worried about Ivy. Anna was certain that Ivy had been trying to create another working body. Usually after something blew up in Ivy's face she would have a hissy fit or something, but this time she had just stole away to her room, and no one had heard a sound out of her since.

I walked down the crowded hallways on my way to Ivy's room, and paused as I lifted my hand to knock on the door. She probably wouldn't be able to hear me knock over all the commotion going on in the house. 'Should I just go in?' I tried the door handle, discovering that it turned freely and clicked open. 'It isn't locked.'

I took a deep breath and cracked open the door. "Ivy?" My voice came out in almost a whisper. The lights were off, but I could sense someone else in the room.

"St..ay back." A voice softer than my own answered.

"Ivy?" My voice got stronger and more confident as I reached for the light switch. "Oh my god…" I was completely horror struck when the lights came on and I saw her lying there.

Ivy lay limp on her bed, blood dripping from the corner of her mouth, her eyes half shut. Sitting on the bed with her were two other women: one, a girl I had met before, Judo, and the other a woman who I had recently met, Valerie.

"We're dying." Judo looked up at me with sad eyes as I slowly approached, afraid to get close.

"Is there anything I can do?" My voice wavered uncontrollably.

"We're beyond all help." Valerie sighed, her tone dripping with depression.

"Oh." I sat down on the bed next to Judo and cradled Ivy's body in my arms. "Hey."

"Hey." She smiled weakly back up at me and rolled her eyes at my attempt at not acknowledging the fact that the life was leaving her.

"What happened to you?" I wiped the blood from her lips.

Ivy glanced at Valerie, and the silver-haired woman started explaining. "We could feel the body weakening, and we knew it wouldn't be long before it failed us entirely, and we would have to cross over to the other side. We didn't want to go yet; we wanted more time with Hao, and so we went down to the lab and tried to make a new body. As you can see, we did more harm than good. I'm afraid that now we're fading even faster…"

My mind raced, trying to think of a solution to our problem. I didn't want to think about how Hao would react if Ivy left him again so soon after they had been reunited. "Maybe Faust or Anna could help? Maybe even Hoshi would have an idea?"

"It's our time to go." Judo sighed pathetically. "We have half a day left at most, so the way I figure it, we'll pass away tomorrow."

"Help me up." Ivy ordered weakly.

Valerie rolled her eyes at the body lying, too tired to move by itself, on the bed. "We don't have the strength for this."

Ivy sat up on her own and glared at her eldest persona. "_I_ know what _I'm_ doing. Judo said half a day, so _I'm_ going to make the best of this last day of _my_ life. _You_ can cross over now if you want to. I have no need of you anymore, and frankly, I'm sick of your nagging and pessimism." She slid easily out of my embrace and stood on her own, wavering a little, but standing.

Valerie and Judo both disappeared and I was left alone with Ivy. "Are you sure you can do this?" I placed a hand on her shoulder.

"I'll be fine. Really. Just leave me alone to get ready." She smiled shallowly at me.

I nodded and turned to leave. Anna had also instructed me to wake Hao up and tell him to get his lazy butt in gear, so I planned to stop by my brother's room while I was in the area. "If you sure this is what you want Ivy." I shrugged and walked away.

"Yoh?"

I looked back at her over my shoulder.

Her smile became genuine. "Thank you, but it does you no good to try to save a dead woman sixteen years after she drowned."

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Thank you to: RainAngelSing, HAO-Addictive, isa18, demon thing, thoughtless dreamer, DarkPisces33, MaiValentinefan, Andrea Nefisto, Untitled Sorrow, yo wuz up, Touch of the Wind, kari tao(ren's little sister), BrokenHeartsVille, Who Cares, KaZuYaMiNeKuRa, LisaTheHedgehog, Marina, my favorite flamer D, and his impersonator D;.

PLEASE REVIEW!


	41. Heartbroken

Mikau: Hello! It's been awhile hasn't it… I'm a little sick. I was at the hospital, and they had to draw blood, and I fainted. They say only boys usually faint when they have to draw blood, so I guess that means I'm sort of boyish…hmm. Oh well. So that's where I've been. I just can't seem to stay well. Oh well, it's sort of a short chapter, but I worked hard on it, so I hope you enjoy it.

**_Disclaimer:_** I don't own Shaman King.

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Heartbroken

I descended the stairwell and looked for my sister and her Lucifer among the various faces in the vast crowd. I spotted them over by the bubble machine, and went to join them.

"Hey, have either of you seen Lian?" I chewed lightly on my bottom lip.

Hoshi looked around, scanning the crowd. "Nope. I'll tell Lian you're looking for him if I do see him though. Hey, Lucy, entertain Thorn for awhile while I go talk to some people." My sister walked off.

"Sure Hosh. I'll meet up with you later. Come on Thorn." Lucifer waved a brief goodbye to my sister and put his arm around my waist. "Let's dance."

I blushed heavily. Lucifer seemed to notice my discomfort at his touch. "What's the matter? You still shaken up about me being the 'Lord of the Underworld'?"

"Mm? Oh! No, it's not that…It's just that…" I pulled away from him, slightly embarrassed, "…It's that you're my sister's boyfriend. I don't think she'd like it if we danced together." I looked down at my feet and blushed.

Lucifer smiled his dashingly handsome smile at me as he tipped my chin upwards. "Look, Hoshi told me to entertain you, so that's what I'm going to do, and right now there are only two things we could do that would be entertaining, so take your pick: we can either go out onto the dance floor, or to a spare bed room. Which would you prefer Thorn?"

His smile weakened my knees, and I felt my heart's pace quicken. My breath came to me in short puffs, and hormones raced through my system. My mouth went dry, and my pupils turned to tiny pinpricks. I was absolutely terrified of that man, but somehow I managed to stutter a labored, "D-da-dance fl-oor, p-p-please."

"That's what I thought." The same confident grin played upon the devil's face.

He escorted me out onto the dance floor where they were playing some romantic slow song. I shuddered when he wrapped his arms around me and pulled us close together. I let my arms drape over his shoulders, but didn't make eye contact, instead gazing to the side. I could feel his eyes on me the entire time we danced. He didn't look away; he stared and stared and stared until I thought he would burn a hole through me. His cold black eyes seemed to burn through me with their scorching frost.

The silence between us was awkward and uncomfortable; I had to break it or risk dying of an anxiety attack brought on by the hundreds of thoughts flying through my head at the same time. And so I asked a question that I needed the answer to before I could trust him with my elder twin.

"Lucifer?" I looked him in the eye for the first time that entire song.

"Yes?" His two playful, black orbs greeted me, smiling their devilish grin.

I swallowed—gulped, and let the words slide off my tongue and past my lips. "Do you really love my sister?"

It was a completely serious question, so the response I got from him was more than unexpected. He laughed at me! Not outright peals of obnoxious laughter, but Lucifer's own brand of laughter. Audibly, he only chuckled, but his eyes were rolling on their sides laughing.

I glared at the insensitive demon. "WHAT—may I ask—is so funny?" I didn't appreciate his boorishness.

"Nothing." The laughter in his eyes ceased, and the smile returned. "It's just that you had such a serious air, and all you wanted to know was if I loved Hoshi. It's a simple question, but you quite over exaggerated."

"And your answer is…?" I pressed him.

"Yes. You see, I told you it was a simple question, and a simple question merits a simple answer." He chuckled to himself as he bopped me on the nose with an index finger.

I blinked, a bit jarred by his treating me like a child. I soon recovered my composure, and moved on to my next question. "But do you love _only _her?"

"Huh?" The smile from his eyes dimmed until I could hardly see it, and then it was gone. His expression turned grave.

"I mean would you ever cheat on her?" I gulped again, not feeling very secure with him giving me that look.

"What makes you say that?" His eyes delved into my skull, searching my brain for answers. I could almost feel him picking through my thoughts.

"Nothing! It's just that…You could have any woman, why just settle for one?" Somehow I found some sort of strength inside of me, and my voice steadied, and grew more confident. "You mean everything to my sister, and I don't want her getting hurt."

Lucifer looked at me for a minute—not staring like before, but just looking, as if considering. A slow smile spread a little reluctantly across his lips, but the smile wasn't potent enough to reach his eyes, which remained somber. "I see. Looking out for your sister are you? Well, you've no reason to worry. I'll be faithful." His arms tightened around me, seeming to contradict his words.

I looked back up into his eyes, but they were empty. He was staring off over my left shoulder at nothing in particular. His tightened grip hadn't meant anything. I looked away in the opposite direction as the slow song continued to hum over the muffled noise of the other couples on the dance floor as they whispered sweet nothings in each others' ears.

"Umm…Thorn?" I jumped at the sudden reentrance of my sister's boyfriend's voice.

"Uh…Yes?" My brownish eyes again made contact with his obsidian ones.

"I'm really sorry for any pain that I will cause you." His once empty eyes were now full of guilt. It was enough to make me extremely uneasy.

I tried hard to find my voice again. "W-why do you say that?" I managed to keep most of the fear out of my voice.

A small, ironic grin parted his lips a fraction of an inch. "Oh nothing. It's just that I have an extremely guilty consciousness, and I like apologizing in advance." He kissed me delicately on the side of my neck, leaving a small red mark in the shape of a phoenix. I didn't notice the mark at the time as it was well concealed. Lucifer also tucked a red rose behind my ear as he smiled impishly.

I felt faint. I swore I was going to pass out at any second. But then the song ended, and another, faster one started up. "There you two are." Hoshi appeared, as if, out of nowhere, and rejoined our group. "I couldn't find the person that I wanted to see. She's probably busy though…giving orders to anyone within a mile or two."

"You mean Anna?" Lucifer smirked at his girlfriend, his grave air completely dissolved.

"Why yes." Hoshi wrapped her arms around her lover's waist as she closed her eyes and kissed him on the cheek.

Lucifer enveloped Hoshi in his own set of arms, but somehow managed to lift a finger to his lips, motioning for me not to tell my sister about the strange conversation I had just had with him.

I nodded, showing I had understood, but my face was still a bit blank from confusion and the like.

Hoshi pulled away from Lucifer and smiled brightly at me. "So, what were you two up to Thorn? Has my Lucifer been behaving himself?"

I blinked, at first not realizing that she was speaking to me, even though she had addressed me by name. "Oh? Oh! Well—"

My incomplete sentence was broken unexpectedly by a man dressed as a knight in shining armor. "Hey you! Demon-boy!"

Lucifer smiled maliciously at the unwelcome guest. "Why hello Lian. What can we do for you this beautiful night?"

Lian glared bitterly back. "You can keep your paws off of my girlfriend for starters you bastard." My boyfriend stepped in front of me, separating me from Lucifer.

Lucifer's smiled turned to a full-fledged smirk, oozing venom. "You know, where I come from, those are fighting words."

Lian clenched his fists and raised one at my sister's boyfriend. "You want a fight? I'll give you a fight!"

The devil chuckled condescendingly at my boyfriend. "Nah! You're not worth my time."

"Why you!" Lian lunged at Lucifer, intent to kill, but both Hoshi and I grabbed at Lian, holding him back. "Let me at him! Let me at him, I say!"

I stepped in front of Lian and blocked his way. "Please stop. Don't fight him!"

Hoshi glared at Lucifer. The demon shrunk back from her like a puppy retreating with its tail between its legs. "What?"

"You know what." Hoshi chided half-heartedly, a smile behind her disapproving looks. "Don't egg him on. You know he's only a mortal, and he wouldn't stand a chance against you in a fight."

Lucy smirked with pride at his girlfriend's words. Lian glared daggers at my sister, screeching, "That's it! I've had enough of you woman!"

I tried to hold my boyfriend back as I hissed under my breath to my sister, "Hoshi! NOT. _Helping_!"

My twin smiled mock-sweetly back at me. "I can't help it if it's true." She motioned to her pet, "Come on Lucifer, let's leave them alone."

"Sure." The demon king nodded, wrapping an arm around my sister's waist possessively, and smirking back at Lian over his shoulder.

Lian stopped struggling as he watched his opponent walk away. He called after the demon, "I don't trust you as far as I can throw you, punk!"

"Not a lot of people do." Lucifer stuck his tongue out.

That seemed to set Lian off all over again. "That…little…bas—"

"Lian!" I looked pleadingly into his eyes.

He looked away. "Sorry."

"It's okay." I smiled, and that seemed to make everything all right.

"Your real name is Thorn, isn't it?" He smiled sweetly, and I blushed at being caught lying to him.

"Yes. It is…. How did you find out?" I looked down to my feet and played with the hem of my dress nervously.

He tilted my chin back upwards and chuckled kindly. "I'm a friend of your cousin's and an acquaintance of your sister. Hana told me."

"Oh." For the first time I felt awkward talking to him. It was a strange feeling, and I would give anything to keep from feeling it. "Do you want to dance?" I offered. It was the only thing I could think of to keep from feeling awkward with him.

"Sure." As if by magic, the previous song ended, and a slow song, Natsu no E, started up. Lian put an arm around my waist as I rested one hand on his shoulder. He took my free hand in his own. It was all so mechanical, and I wasn't nearly as happy as I thought I would be to be dancing with him again.

"Something the matter?" Lian gazed at me with worry overflowing in his eyes.

"Huh? Oh…no. Nothing…" 'What's the matter with me?' I was so lacking energy. It was as if I had become another, more somber, person. But then I remembered, and a bright smile came to my face. "Hey, you promised you would take your mask off for me tonight!"

His reaction was not as I had expected. The whites of his eyes grew and grew until the bright blue I loved so much was almost completely consumed by a blizzard of white. It was as if he were staring down the barrel of a gun, and my finger was tightly pressed against the trigger.

"Something wrong?" The colorlessness of his face worried me.

He came out of his daze with the sound of my voice. "No, nothing's wrong. It's just that…. Well, maybe we should wait a little longer until I take this mask off. Don't you think we're rushing things already?"

"No." I smiled sweetly, making him nervous. "Come on! Most couples have at least seen each other's faces. It's not like I'm asking for something drastic." I reached up to remove his mask.

He moved out of the way, evading my hands. "Thorn. Please. I'm not really who you think I am."

I froze, my hands inches from his face. I slowly lowered them. "What do you mean?" An uncertain smile painted my face.

"Look, Thorn, Lian isn't my real name." My stomach lurched. "I didn't mean to lie to you. When we first met at the other party, I didn't know it was _you_ I had met. I didn't know I had fallen in love with Thorn Asakura." I gulped. His voice had lowered, informing me that he had been speaking using a fake high voice all along. This voice, his real voice was familiar to me, and it scared me. Now it was my turn to have my eyes widen. "I'm actually—Thorn, I'm really sorry. I do love you, I do, and I hope that you can still love me too. My real name is—" He slowly lifted the mask from his face. I gasped. "Tao Akira."

The world stopped turning. I wish that I fainted then and there. It would have been so much easier on me. But I remained conscious. Tears blurred my vision, and my feet started moving of their own will. I could distantly hear him call after me, but I ignored the painful wail of his voice. I willed it not to be true, but it was. I just couldn't accept him for what he was. My Lian couldn't be Akira. He just couldn't. But he was.

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Mikau: Okay, I replied to reviews using the reply link, so I hope you all got your replies.

Thanks To: Tippy-chan, thoughtless dreamer, Sonseray, DarkPisces33, RainAngelSing, yo wuz up, Untitled Sorrow, isa18, MaiValentinefan, Shamanbabe, none, HAO-Addictive, Marina, acho)bl3ssU, and Andrea Nefisto.

PLEASE REVIEW!


	42. Reunited

Mikau: Hello everyone! I'm especially pleased with this chapter, so I hope you enjoy it. Also, wish me luck because I'm trying out for "A Doll's House" tomorrow. I know I won't get a part because there are only five female roles, and as usual Juniors and Seniors are cast first. Oh well. It will be fun anyway just to go and see who all tries out. Anyway, back to the story. I think there will only be a couple more chapters. We may be down to the last 10…or 5…or 20…As we've been over numerous times before, I have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to guessing the number of chapters left. We could have another 30 to go and I wouldn't know it. I know exactly what I want to happen from now to the end (I made a little check list back in August or so when I started TBT of all the things I wanted to happen and in what order, and now I'm down to the final 10 or so items), but I don't know how many chapters it will take to finish off my list. Who knows, I could add some things—scratch that—I _will_ add some things, but I don't know how long it will take me to finish. Okay, I've talked long enough. Thanks to those who always read my babble before and after the fic!

**_Disclaimer:_** I don't own Shaman King.

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Reunited

_I looked down at the baby in my arms and tried to smile. All that came were tears, yet the baby never cried. _

_Hoshi never cried. She reminded me of myself in a way. She was calm and collected, never making a fuss, never complaining, yet she seemed to be plotting something. You could tell by looking in her eyes. There was hidden genius in there along with a glimmer of mischief._

_Thorn, on the other hand, was the moodiest child I had ever met. She would cry for absolutely no reason at all, and then she'd suddenly stop. I believe she did it purely to annoy me. Her eyes were filled with innocence though, so I couldn't stay mad at her for long. I had a feeling that she hated me. She didn't like it when I held her, and she'd always cry when I tried to do anything for her. _

_Kanna always fed Thorn, but of course Kanna wasn't home at that moment. In fact, no one was. It _was _New Year's Day, so I couldn't ask the staff to work. Everyone had the day off to spend with his or her family, and I was alone in my ridiculously huge mansion with my twin daughters. I cursed the size of my house. It was awfully lonely being so rich._

_I finished feeding Hoshi and attempted to pick up Thorn. She, of course, screeched and wailed, not accepting the bottle I offered her. The struggle went on for a while until I heard the doorbell ring. _

_I didn't think much of it, thinking that one of the servants would get it. A minute or so later it rung again. Again I didn't think anything of it, and returned to WWIII with my younger daughter. _

_When the bell rung a third time, I decided to do something about it. I shouted to anyone near enough to hear me, "Hey, could someone get the door?" Then it donned on me that there was no one else in the house to get the door. "Hold on a minute; I'm coming!" _

_I set Thorn down and made a move toward the door. The child screeched at me to pick her back up. I complied with her demand and made another attempt at the door. This time Hoshi called me back. She didn't exactly cry, but instead made her little 'I am very displeased with your course of action.' noise. I went back and picked her up as well._

_With both children in my arms, I finally reached the door. I used my shaman powers to open it since both hands were full._

"_Hao!" In stepped my own younger twin._

"_Yoh? What are you doing here? I thought you and Anna were out of the country." Thorn was crying again, so I bounced her softly as best as I could with Hoshi in my other arm._

_Yoh looked me over carefully. "Yeah, uh, we were, but…—God you look awful."_

_I raised an eyebrow at him curiously. "Uh…thanks?... Feel free to come in." I started walking back to the living room where I had been before and motioned for him to follow._

_Yoh looked inquisitively at the building as we walked back to the living room, in awe of everything that he saw. "You've got a beautiful house…. I wish the Inn were this gorgeous, then there would be a lot of patrons."_

"_Thanks. I—" I hesitated before continuing. "Ivy decorated the whole place." I set Hoshi back down and tried to get Thorn to take a bottle from me._

"_I'm sorry." Yoh sat down in an armchair across from me and looked me over again nervously._

"_So what are you doing here?" Hoshi started fussing again, and I made a move to pick her back up._

_Yoh beat me to it, picking up his niece and rocking her gently. "Which one is this?" He smiled his contagious grin, but I couldn't return the smile._

"_She's Hoshi. This one is Thorn." Thorn finally took the bottle and sucked on it contently._

"_They're beautiful." His smile grew as he looked both twins over. "Hoshi looks a lot like you."_

"_And Thorn looks like Ivy." I set the bottle down and laid Thorn down for her nap. A heavy sigh escaped my throat._

_Yoh set Hoshi down next to Thorn, and rested a worried hand on my shoulder. "You really do look your age. I mean you look horrible."_

_I looked into the wall mirror at my messy crimson hair pulled up in a lopsided ponytail. I looked over my torn blue jeans, and worn black tank top. My face was pale and my eyes were red. I looked thinner since I had lost a lot of weight from not eating. "I do look old." I smiled spitefully at my reflection, laughing at my pathetic state._

"_Hao?" Our eyes met in the mirror. He was worried about me._

"_Hm?" The smile drained from my face. I didn't have the energy to sustain it._

"_How are you?" His voice was filled with concern._

"_Miserable." I sunk into the nearby couch and let my head hang, resting in my hands._

_My twin sat next to me and put an arm around my shoulders. "I came as soon as I heard. It took forever to get here. There was a huge snowstorm over in the U.S.A., and all planes were grounded. Opacho called me on the 27th, but I couldn't get a flight until yesterday morning. Anna was completely devastated, and she decided to stay in the states with the Patch until I came back. I'm so sorry."_

"_It's not your fault." I fought back tears as they threatened to fall._

_Yoh was near tears as well. "But isn't there something we can do? Can't we bring her back or get the angels to or something? We're the Shaman Kings after all, what good is this power unless we use it?"_

"_We can't use our powers for ourselves, and the angels can't do anything for her this time. There's no grand plan this time, so they can't bring her back again." I couldn't hold back the tears anymore._

"_I'm sorry Hao…. So, so sorry." Yoh hugged me tightly and we both cried._

"_Thanks." I mumbled. "I still can't believe you came all this way just for me."_

"_That's what brothers are for." He wiped the tears from his eyes and tried to smile._

"Hao!" I could feel someone shaking me. "Hao! Wake up! Hey Hao!"

I sat straight up in bed and whacked my head on something incredibly thick. Twin "Ow!"s resounded. I rubbed the sore spot gingerly and looked up into two dark eyes, identical to my own.

"Oh. You're up." My lazy twin brother hovered over me, a worried look in his eye. "You were crying in your sleep."

I reached up to my eyes, and sure enough, there were tears. I wiped them away and smiled reassuringly at Yoh. "Just having a depressing dream. But it was only a dream, and what harm can dreams do?"

"Hmm." He looked at me intently. "I guess so. Anna sent me to wake you up and tell you to 'get your ass out on the dance floor now or else she'll have to drag you out there herself.'"

"I'll be out in a minute." I pulled myself out of bed and got my costume out of the closet.

"Okay. See ya." Yoh still looked worried, or if not worried, distracted. That was so unlike my brother. I decided not to question him. He looked as if he had enough to deal with already, and I didn't want to bother him.

I slipped on a pair of navy blue pants, a fairly dressy burgundy shirt, and a loose sienna colored jacket. I pulled my hair up in a high ponytail, and put on a pair of glasses without lens in them. I smiled at my reflection in the mirror, and tucking a ring case into my pants pocket, I exited the room.

Loud music and the mixed hum of voices met my ears, almost deafening me. I waded into the crowd, looking for Valerie, but I couldn't discern her face among the sea of others. What I did see, however, shocked me speechless. My eldest daughter and one of my enemies making out on the dance floor.

There was Hoshi in the arms of the devil himself. It was obvious what was going on; the way she looked at him and blushed as he lovingly stroked her cheek. Hoshi's actions weren't so surprising; I had more or less figured out that she was madly in love with someone. She had been acting so strangely for a few weeks beforehand, and I could guess from her behavior that she had fallen for somebody. She had been floating around on air, off in her own little world for days, so it was only natural to assume she was in love.

The surprising thing about it was the way Lucifer looked. The gleam in his eye as he looked into her crystal blue orbs, the way he held her, the way he kissed her. It was all so familiar. It took me a minute to realize where I had seen it before, but before long it all came rushing back to me. He looked at Hoshi the way that I looked at Ivy. He loved her. He cared for her more than anything else in the world. She was his world, his life, his reason to live. She was everything to him.

And somehow, when I saw them there together, she with her arms around his neck, and willingly submitting to him, and he with his tongue down her throat, and hands freely roaming her body, I wasn't angry like I had been when Ivy and I had walked in on them earlier with him on top of her in bed. I didn't hate him; I wasn't mad. They seemed so right together.

'She must have been the one he was telling me about. A week ago when he told me he was in love and wanted to marry. He's completely serious about her.' My entire body had gone numb as I stood there. Thoughts raced through my head. Should I stop them? Should I walk away and leave them be? Should I corner her later and forbid her from seeing him? Should I take it up with him afterwards? Should I talk to her after the party and give her my blessing? Was I really accepting this or was I just numb to the thought of my daughter being in love with the Devil? I don't know how long I stood there, as time seemed to me to be standing still, but they broke their kiss, and he went off in the direction of the refreshments table. Now was my chance to talk to either of them alone. What would I do? Should I take the opportunity that had been laid at my feet, or should I walk away?

Walk I did. I walked up behind Hoshi, but hesitated before saying anything. I looked at her for a moment, but that moment was long enough to tell me what I had to do. "So, who was he?"

She jumped. She hadn't sensed me behind her, but in that crowd of people, who would? "Dad! Uh, what are you doing here!" 'Damn! Did he see us? Oh my god, if he did it's all over.'

I lifted an eyebrow at her, ignoring her thoughts. "It is _my_ Birthday party after all. Now, are you going to answer my question or not?"

'I can't lose Lucifer now. What do I do? Lie! That's the only way.' "That guy? Oh, he's no one. I just met him. He hasn't even told me his name yet. He's nice though, don't you think?"

I smirked knowingly at her. "Yes, he must have been nice for you to have just met him, but already let him kiss you like that. Or maybe it's that you make a practice of heavily making out with men you just meet?"

'I am so dead. Well…maybe I can run away with Lucifer or something. Yeah, we can elope. That would be nice. Then we could be happy.' She looked down at the floor, ashamed at being caught. "So you saw that did you? Then I guess you recognize him?"

I nodded. "What's he done to you Hoshi, and don't bother lying." I felt that to be a good father I had to ask even though I could make outlandish assumptions and still come close to the truth.

She immediately denied everything. "Nothing! He hasn't done anything to me!" 'Well it's sort of true…he's never forced anything on me.'

"I told you not to lie. You've slept with him haven't you?"

She looked down at her feet and mumbled back, "Y-yes." I could hear the tears in her voice. She thought that she was going to lose him forever.

"And you love him?" I continued with my ruthless questioning.

Another meeped 'yes' was barely heard over the crowd's roar.

"And you'd never forgive me if I told you that you could never see him again?"

This time she nodded, too choked up for words.

"And _he_ makes you happy?" I bit my lip, telling myself not to comfort her just yet.

"M-more than anything. He's the one thing in my life that gives me any sort of joy whatsoever. P-please don't take him away from me." She bit back her tears to beg me not to destroy her. She had never cried as a baby, but now…

Now was the time I stepped in and comforted her, hugging her, rubbing her back, and fishing for the most soothing words I could find. "Shhhhh. I'm not here to take anything away from you. I haven't been much of a father to you your whole life, so why should I start trying to control you now? I figure after a few hundred years, you should be able to take care of yourself. As long as you're happy, I'm happy for you, but if he ever hurts you, tell me and I'll rip his guts out."

Two big, bright, tear-stained, sapphire eyes glowed up at me. "You mean…?"

I nodded.

Her hold on me got tighter, and she cried even harder, what I expect were tears of joy. She seemed breathless as she weakly breathed the words "Thank you so much."

Lucifer returned with punch just in time to see Hoshi break away from me. She laughed merrily as she hugged her boyfriend tightly. The demon king just looked stupidly between me and my daughter, a lost look on his face. "Uh…Hoshi?"

She only smiled happily at him. He turned to me, looking puzzled.

I smirked half-heartedly. "So she's the one you were telling me about."

A charming blush painted his cheeks. He nodded. "Yeah. She's the one."

I nodded back, an understanding between men. "Hurt her and you're dead."

Lucifer laughed nervously and nodded again. "Yes sir."

I smiled and walked away, happy that I could make one of my daughters happy, but I had a foreboding feeling that I was making a grave error, trusting Lucifer with my daughter's heart.

I shook off the feeling and returned to my search, finding the thing I was looking for disguised as a bride with a knife through her heart. I approached the veiled beauty sitting on the benches. "Hey."

"Hey." Valerie returned the greeting, and I sat down next to her. "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be dancing with all the pretty women out there? I thought I saw Mari and Macchi looking for you. They're dressed as strippers."

"Why would I want to dance with all the other women when I could just sit here and stare at you. You're far more beautiful than the rest all put together." I lifted her veil. "May I kiss the bride?"

She looked away, pulling the veil down before I could get a good look at her face. "Ha. Very funny. Thank you for the compliment, but flattery will get you nowhere. And just what are you supposed to be? A journalist or something?"

"Close." I pushed my glasses back up on my nose. "Try Clark Kent."

I could just see her smile beneath the cloth covering her face. "Oh really? Then are you wearing a Superman costume under that?" I thought I could make out a wink.

"Take me back to your bedroom, and you can find out." I smiled suggestively, but the smile faded as she turned away from me again.

"Not tonight Hao. I'm not up to it." There was a tired and sad tone in her voice.

"Are you okay?" My expression changed to a worried one as I tilted her chin to face me. "Maybe you should go lie down in your room?"

"I suppose you want to tag along then?" I could imagine her rolling her eyes at me under the veil.

"I'm serious, you don't seem to be well." I smiled softly at her.

"Maybe you're right…" She got to her feet, but fell back down as soon as she stood up. I caught her and helped her to stand steadily.

"You okay?" I gently stroked her cheek as she leaned heavily on me, I supporting most of her weight.

"Mmhmm." She nodded, but I could tell she was weak.

"Maybe I should go with you. Is that okay?" I picked her up and started off towards her room.

Again she nodded, laying her head on my shoulder and not struggling. I took her back to her room and lay her gently on her bed. "Thanks." She softly murmured.

"What's up with you? You were fine yesterday, but now…. Are you getting a flu bug or something?" I sat down next to her and reached to take off her veil.

"Don't!" She swatted my hands away yet again. "I'll be fine tomorrow. I just don't feel well right this minute. You don't have to worry so much about me."

Something was wrong. Even if she denied it, I knew there was something that she wasn't telling me. That something made me uneasy about going forward with my plan. "You sure?"

"Mmhmm. Positive. You don't have to stay with me, you should go enjoy your party." She smiled, but I could see through it.

"I told you that I'd rather stay with you." I paused, unsure of how I should go about this. "I have something to ask you."

"Something like what?" She sat up in bed and raised an eyebrow at me, unsure if this 'something' was a good 'something' or a bad 'something'.

"Close your eyes and you'll see." I smirked at her skeptical look.

"That makes no sense at all." And yet she closed them anyway.

I did as Hao asked, closing my eyes, but not seeing the point to all of it. I felt somewhat apprehensive about what he had planned. I could tell he was scheming something, but I couldn't tell what. What the hell did he want to ask me?

"Okay. You can open them." I knew he was smiling by the tone of his voice, but I still felt uneasy.

I opened my eyes anyway. The spectacle before me shocked me. There was my X-husband down on one knee with an open ring case in his outstretched hand. The ring was absolutely gorgeous. A blood red phoenix with sapphire eyes, and a topaz beak was mounted on a gold band. One would have to be an idiot not to be able to tell it was an engagement ring. A very expensive one at that.

My eyes went wide and my mouth dropped into a perfect "O". My mind was wiped blank as I stared. All I could do was stare and gape. I lifted my veil to get a better look at the ring, no longer caring if he saw how deathly pale my face was, but then again, he probably couldn't tell because of the dim lighting in my room.

I stared and he smiled, clearly all to pleased with himself for getting that type of a reaction from me. Our eyes met. And it was then that my brain started functioning again. "Hao, this is…I mean…Oh. My. GOD. It's gorgeous." I pieced together broken fragments of sentences.

His smile widened. "You're gorgeous." He got up and sat on the bed beside me. "So I guess you can figure out what I wanted to ask you, ne?"

I looked from his eyes to the ring, then back to him. I let my gaze drop back to the ring so that I wouldn't have to look him in the eye when I told him I was dying.

I was about to open my mouth to tell him, but words came out of his mouth faster than mine. "I guess this is sort of unexpected since I don't believe that I've even told you before that I loved you. But I do love you Valerie…more than anything."

I wanted to jump in right there and tell him who I really was. I hated Valerie, and hearing those words from his mouth addressed to her made my blood boil. He was supposed to be in love with me! I was his wife after all.

But he continued speaking. "I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I made a mistake when I married your cousin instead of you. I can't believe I wasted so many years of my life with Ivy when I could have had you. Please, let my fix that mistake now. Will you marry me?"

"What?" I prayed that he hadn't really said what I thought he had. My already numb body lost even more feeling. I felt my nonexistent heart cracking as piece by piece he broke my heart.

"I asked if you would marry me." He smiled sweetly, slicing away at me slowly with paper cuts.

"No." My voice wavered as I fought to keep it under control. "I mean about Ivy."

"Forget Ivy." And that was the decisive blow that was meant to take off my head. Too bad he missed the first time and had to take several more whacks at me before he completely severed my head.

"I don't need her now that I have you. I love you so much more than I ever could her. She was just a naïve child; you're a woman. I need you. I've wasted enough of my life mourning over her." Silent tears flowed down my face. I turned away, unable to look at him. Just hearing his voice was enough torture; I didn't need to see the loving look on his face too. That look was meant for Valerie, not me.

"Now it's time to move on and forget her. Leave Ivy in the past. Now it's just you and me, the way it should have been from the beginning. I never should have met Ivy; it should have been you Valerie. I love you." The tears came even faster up until the point where I couldn't stand it.

"Stop! Please stop! I can't take anymore!" I buried my face in my hands and sobbed. "Hao, I'm not—That is to say…. I'm…. I'm really…" I couldn't get the words out. They were like sharp knives coming up my throat, cutting my mouth and tongue and insides and leaving me bleeding until all that was left was a pile of blood and a broken woman.

I wanted to die then and there until two arms enveloped me, holding me tightly and soothing me. "Shhhh. Ivy, it's okay. I already know."

Tears still falling, I looked up at him and a weight seemed to be lifted from my heart. I reached up and cupped his cheek, looking him straight in the eye. I buried my face in his chest and sobbed some more. "Why didn't you tell me you knew?"

"Why didn't you tell me first?" He held me as if I would fade away at any moment. Hao's fingers ran slowly through my hair.

"I don't know." I honestly answered. "Sure Anna told me not to at first in order for us to make a completed body so I could come back to you. There were so many times that I wanted to tell, but I was afraid." My tears receded some, and I rested my head on his shoulder, against the nape of his neck.

"Afraid of what?" He continued smoothing my hair then running his fingers through it.

"I was afraid that you wouldn't want me anymore." Those harsh words that haunted my nightmares cut me even then coming out of my mouth.

He chuckled softly, and I could feel his smile on me as he held me even tighter. It was as if he was trying to reassure me. "You know, sometimes you can be so stupid. Why on earth would you ever think that?"

I blushed slightly and dried my tears. "Well, I thought that you would rather have a living, breathing, bleeding wife. Now that I hear it out loud, it sounds so stupid, so foolish. I suppose I was afraid you wouldn't accept me the way I was. I was so afraid to lose you. I love you too much to lose you. That's why I didn't go on to Heaven when I first died. I didn't want to leave you. I wanted to find a way to be reunited with you. I love you too much and it blinds my common sense. It makes me do stupid things."

He tilted my chin upwards and smirked happily. "But that's what I love about you. You're so cute when you get wrapped up in things and lose yourself in them. It just shows that you really care. That, and that you have a big heart." I blushed and smiled back at him. And then he kissed me. A long and passionate kiss. One like we hadn't shared in years. It had been so long, and each had missed the other exponentially. Soon time found us with my dress off and him on top of me.

Hao broke the kiss long enough to get in a few words edge-wise. "I'm sorry for making you cry before." As soon as he was done, our lips flew back to each other. "I really just wanted to hear it from your lips."

"It's okay." Oh how I had missed him. "Really. I don't blame you." I had felt so alone and depressed, but then in that moment, all of that left me. "I love you."

"I love you more." He smirked down at me. A challenge.

"I really don't think so." I smiled my own treacherous grin.

He took off his own shirt. "Marry me Ivy?"

"Yes, oh yes." How I had longed for that word. My name on his tongue was pure ecstasy. He slipped the ring on my finger. "Hao, should we really be doing this before we're married?" I teased.

He rolled his eyes and trailed kisses up and down my neck. "We were married once, so I don't see anything wrong with it."

A thought distracted me from the present moment. "You know Hao, Anna's bound to wonder where I am if I'm gone from the party too long."

He looked down at me like I was crazy. "Ivy, it's been sixteen years, I plan to keep you here all night no matter what Anna says." His lips clamped back over mind and I didn't dare make any other arguments. I finally felt like myself again. The person I was when I was alive. Ivy Kyôyama-Asakura was back, and Valerie was washed far from the shores of my mind.

A small sound made my heart jump and drew my attention away from my husband-to-be. "Did you hear that?"

He kissed the lobe of my ear and whispered a soft "No."

I smiled as he went back to kissing my lips. "No, seriously." I laughed as I tried to talk while he kissed me. "I swear I heard someone at the door."

"And I swear I didn't hear anything at all, just you trying to get out of sleeping with me." He repositioned himself on top of me and started unhooking my bra with his teeth.

"I was doing nothing of the sort." I couldn't help but smile and laugh as I ran my fingers through his hair, pulling it out of its ponytail.

But then I heard the sound again, and he, apparently, heard it too, for he jumped, surprised. It was louder this time; unmistakably it was a knock at the door. A timid knock, to be sure, but a knock all the same. We stopped what we were doing and looked at each other, sitting up in bed.

"Valerie?" A meek, tear-strained voice called for me.

I glanced at Hao, a 'What should I do?' look on my face.

"Valerie? Are you in there?" The girl's voice called again.

"Is that Thorn?" I whispered.

Hao murmured back. "I think so. Go ahead and answer."

"Yes? I'm here. Thorn, is that you?" I bit my lip. It would be so awkward if she walked in on us.

"Y-yes. It's me." It was obvious from her shaking, wavering voice that she was crying her heart out. "Can I come in?"

Hao and I exchanged panicked looks. "Uh…why exactly? I'm sort of sick, and I don't want you to catch anything."

"Lying to your daughter?" Hao teased me under his breath.

I shot an 'Oh shut up.' look his way.

"I just really need to talk to someone, and Hoshi is sort of…busy…with Lucifer at the minute, and I-I…I just really need to talk to you, p-please?" She was really crying by now.

I cast a fleeting look at Hao. "Go ahead and talk to her, but you're having brunch with me tomorrow at the café."

"I'd love to." I whispered back, kissing him quickly on the cheek before scrambling to put on a bathrobe. "Just a minute, Thorn!"

Hao rushed to pick up his clothes, and kissed me one last time before poofing out of the room in a small burst of flames.

I sat on my bed and tried to look sick. It didn't take much seeing as I was practically on my deathbed. "Okay, come in!"

The door slowly creaked open, just a bit at first, and then just enough for Thorn to step into the room. The bedraggled teenager quickly shut the door after she got all the way in the room.

It was all too obvious that something was drastically wrong. The way she carried herself, her appearance, and of course her tears were enough to prove that point. I patted the spot on the bed next to me, motioning for her to sit. She did, but very slowly, very labored. It was as if every step she took pained her.

I tilted her chin upward in order to see her face better, but she pulled away. "What's the matter?" My voice sounded so odd even to my own ears. I found that I sounded awkward when I tried to be a comforting mother.

Thorn unexpectedly attached herself to my torso and launched into an uncontrollable fit of sobs. At first I didn't know what to do, but soon my arms naturally found my way around her, and with my head rested on hers, I rubbed her back and gently hushed her. "It can't possibly be that bad."

"Oh yes it can! The only man I've ever loved has deceived me and broken my heart. It can't possibly get any worse than this." She bawled some more into my bathrobe, and I could see her heartbreak in her tears.

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To Black Butterfly: A bit dramatic? Hmm. I don't think so. My style is dramatic and descriptive, so I don't think I can do less of either for fear that my writing would lose quality. I find it helpful to write in lengthy detail as long as it stays interesting because to me it seems if you are given more details then you have an easier time getting inside a character's head. For me that is what it's all about: making others understand how I character thinks and why they behave the way they do. For me if a reader understands or identifies with a character, then all the weeks and months of writing and sleep deprivation are worth it. Sorry, didn't mean to go into a lengthy speech, but sometimes when I really feel about and issue I tend to do that. Also, I would be honored if you named yourself ThornAsakura4ever.

To Hannah: Hello! It's been awhile. I showed my friend, Serena who is also reading TBT at the moment, your TBT and I,SR pictures, and she said they were amazing. Just wanted to let you know. Anyway, back to your question about Lucy. Yes it was him. There's a reason he's acting weird, but that will be revealed in later chapters.

Thanks To: Lady Valandario, isa18, Shamanbabe, Sonseray, Ishimaru Miwa, thoughtless dreamer, MaiValentinefan, Andrea Nefisto, Black Butterfly, HAO-Addictive, Hannah, and KaZuYa MiNeKuRa.

PLEASE REVIEW!


	43. An Attempt to Reconcile

Mikau: Hello everyone! I tried out for A Doll's House yesterday, and I think I did pretty well. My friend Linda (the actress queen of the universe) said I did really, really good, so even if I don't get a part, I'm still unbelievably happy because getting a compliment like that from Linda means the world to me.

**_Disclaimer:_** I don't own Shaman King.

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An Attempt to Reconcile

"So tell me what's the matter. I'm here. I'll listen." Valerie held me and tried her best to be comforting, but her words were more comforting than her actual motions.

Especially when she said 'I'm here.' It meant worlds to me. "Well," I pulled away slightly so that I could sit across from her and look at her as I talked. Not that I would actually look at her, I'd much rather prefer to look at the covers on the bed that I was playing with, but it was more comfortable to talk to her if I was facing her. "At the other Masquerade I met this guy named Tao Lian."

I could tell that she was about to say something, perhaps about the name, but she closed her mouth and waited for me to continue.

"He was only a couple years older than me, and I danced with him and he kissed me. He stole my first kiss. We talked and I fell in love with him. I fell so easily for him. He was sweet, romantic, kind…he was everything like all the princes in the stories. He left me after a short while, but he gave me his email. I emailed him and he emailed me back. We talked all the time for hours at a time. It was wonderful, really. He told me how beautiful I was and how he missed me and how he was in love with me. He seemed so sincere…but…then after I was attacked that night…Akira told me he loved me. And he looked at me differently. He looked at me how Lian looked at me.

Akira had been so cold to me before. He had been mean and spiteful, and I thought he hated me, but…then he said he loved me. And tonight—" I choked on my words. It was so hard to accept, and even harder to admit out loud. "Tonight Lian and I met again, and he took his mask off for me. And it was—" I was thrown into another sobbing fit.

Valerie surrounded me in her arms again and patted me on the back, making a soothing "Shhh." noise. I couldn't help but cry. "It was Akira, wasn't it?"

I nodded.

"Ahh…I see. So you hated Akira did you?"

I nodded again. It was so much easier to have her ask and have me shake or nod my head. I didn't have to say anything out loud, and if it wasn't said out loud, then it couldn't possibly be true.

"But you were in love with Lian." She paused and waited for my nod. "And you were completely shattered when you found that the two were the same."

"Why did he have to lie to me and trick me like that?" I looked to the older woman for advice. "He must have known it would kill me to know. Why?"

"People do the stupidest things when they're in love. He probably knew you'd hate him if you ever found out, and he didn't want to lose you." She smiled in an ironic way, as if she had experienced something like this herself. It sounded to me as if she were taking Akira's side. "Why don't you give him a chance to explain? He must have some reason, and since you're so upset about this, then you must still have feelings for Lian, don't you?"

"Tell me, what can I do to make my feelings for him go away? Maybe if I forgot how much I loved him, I could fall in love with someone else and then I could be happy." Again I looked to her for answers.

"Thorn, love is never without pain, even after marriage. The only thing you can do is learn to love Akira for who he is."

She smiled softly down at me, but I wanted to slap her. How dare she tell me to learn to love that…that…jerk. He'd tricked me, and now she expected me to forgive so easily?

"Sometimes you just have to forgive and forget and learn to be happy with whomever you're given." It was as if she were reading my mind. "It's best to forgive men who hurt you. You'll never forget an old flame, but if you learn to forgive then you can look back on the time you spent with them without remorse or bitterness." She winked playfully. "Learn to forgive men, they can be complete idiots and sometimes they do incredibly stupid things, but you're the real moron if you let their idiocy ruin your happiness."

She made an excellent point. "All right, but only if he apologizes first."

"That's the spirit!" She half-hugged me, and that was when I noticed the ring.

"Oh my god! Is that an engagement ring!" I gaped at the beauty of the phoenix on her ring.

Blood rushed to her cheeks and they instantly turned pink. "Maaaaaaaaybe."

"From my dad?" I could barely contain my excitement.

"Yeah, Hao proposed." I swear her blush got darker, but the lighting in the room was horrible, so I couldn't tell.

"When?"

"Oh just about an hour or so ago." She shrugged it off like getting engaged was no big deal, but I hung on to her every word.

"This is soooo exciting! I've always wanted a mother, and I told Hoshi that you two would get together. Have you decided when the wedding is going to be yet? Who are you going to have as bridesmaids? What are the dresses going to look like? Where are you going on your honeymoon?" One question after another spilled from my mouth.

"Whoa, slow down." She smiled nervously and waved me off. "Nothing has been decided yet. You and your sister will be bridesmaids, of course, and Yoh will probably be the best man and Anna the matron of honor. Then all the rest of our friends will be bridesmaids and stuff, but other than that, like I said, we've got nothing planned."

With all the talk of weddings, my mind drifted back to Lian. "But still, I wish someone loved me enough to propose…"

"I'm sure you'll find him someday." Valerie reassured. "Who knows? He might be right around the corner. Or maybe you've met him already and you just don't know it yet."

I sighed softly, a bit discouraged. "I thought I had found him, but now I think I'm wrong. Dead wrong."

My mother-to-be tried to be comforting. "Well, like I said before, talk to Akira; maybe you can work something out."

I hadn't completely heard her. I was too far off in my own thoughts. "Valerie, am I that naïve that he could trick me this easily? Am I that blind? I feel so foolish, so childish."

"Don't be too hard on yourself. It's not your fault. We all get fooled every once in awhile." Her warm smile did nothing for me.

"Not you! Not Hoshi! How is it that she's three minutes older than I am, and yet she's smarter than I am? Not academically, but socially! She knows the ins and outs of everything like boys and social events and—well, just everything!" The tears had started up again. "How come she picked all this up on her own while I learned nothing? It's so unfair how young and inexperienced I am! Ivory, even though she's a year younger than I am, she knows more than I do! I can't stand to be so left out of the loop! It's such a horrible feeling, and I can't take it! I wish I could be mature and sophisticated like Hoshi. I want to find a man who loves me like Lucifer loves her. I'd give anything to be her, and yet there's nothing I can do."

"Hoshi would probably say the same about you." Her solid, calm voice pierced like an icy dagger through my bitter monologue.

"W-what do you mean?" I couldn't help but blink at her, confused.

"Well, not the part about Lucifer; she wouldn't give him up for the world. I mean about trading lives with you. She hasn't had a very easy time of it, and so she became like she is today. She is grossly over-informed about things because of the horrible things she's experienced. I wouldn't wish that on either of my daughters." She encircled me in her arms and wiped away the tears. "I'm sorry I couldn't have been there to be your mother when it really counted, but I'm here now. I hope you can forgive me even though I'll never be able to make up for this."

Tears formed in hers eyes too like she was confessing some terrible sin she had committed. But I could see no wrong that she had done. "It's not your fault." I comforted her through my own tears. "It's Ivy's for not doing her job. It's my mother's fault, not yours."

"Thorn." The serious tone of her voice jarred me. "I am—No. You've had enough hardship for one day."

She was going to tell me something, but then she stopped, afraid of the effect of her words on me. I didn't bother asking what she was going to say for I knew that if she didn't want me to know yet, then it wasn't time for me to know. I trusted her judgment completely.

"I'm sorry beyond words." She hugged me and then lay down, pulling the covers up over her. "Was there anything else you needed or wanted to talk about?"

"No." My voice was small and meek, but that was always how my voice had been. "But could I stay here for tonight?" It was just that it seemed so hollow that night.

"Sure. I don't mind." She patted the pillow next to hers and I lay down, falling asleep not long after I hit the pillow.

I didn't know what time it was when I awoke the next morning, but it must have been around ten judging by the alarm clock on the nightstand. Valerie was already awake, and I could hear her down in the lab blowing things up. She seemed more determined, more desperate today. One big bang came after the previous in rapid succession.

I was surprised that Anna wasn't yelling at her to 'give it a rest!' But then, of course Anna would probably be busy screeching at the freeloaders of the Inn to clean up the house so that the party could continue at six o'clock that night. Lucifer and Hoshi were probably still in bed. Or there was the possibility that they had gotten up for a short while, but by now were back in bed again. I didn't want to think about that. I didn't know what Hana and his gang were doing, but they were probably out somewhere on the town at a café or video arcade. Akira was probably with them.

My blood began to boil.

How I hated him, despised him, but all in the same instant, I loved him. Maybe not him exactly, but a facet of him. I loved the Lian part of him, and I couldn't stay mad forever although the child in me wanted to forever carry that grudge. The older half of my soul wanted to love him, wanted to be with him. She wanted to 'forgive and forget' as Valerie had instructed, but me, I was the one holding them back. Past and Future each wanted something different, but Present was holding them back with her insecurity and fears. I was afraid. Afraid to love in case I got hurt again, afraid to hate at the risk of losing my soul to hate and turning bitter.

"Thorn Tao." I indulged in my older self for a moment, letting my tongue run over the words. "Tao Thorn." It didn't sound so terribly awful.

I sat up in bed and gazed around the room. It wasn't exactly particularly decorated as much as it was moved into. There was no pattern to where she kept things; things she brought in simply seemed to find their own place and claim it as theirs. I spotted a belt on the floor among some of Valerie's clothing. The belt clearly did not belong there. It reminded me of myself. I was lost among my indecision and fear, and I would stay there in that terrifying place until I found a place for myself like every other person in the world. Like all the other objects in Valerie's room.

I jumped as a door opened. I had been facing the front door, and it was still closed. I turned and was shocked to find a door linking my father's and Valerie's rooms. There in that doorway stood my father. He too looked shocked to see me.

"Sorry. I didn't know you were in here. I was looking for Iv—Valerie." His hair was messy, and he was only wearing a pair of old blue jeans. He looked like he had just gotten up.

"You must have just gotten up if you couldn't tell where she was by the sound of the explosions." As if to accent my point, something blew up in the lab just then.

"I see." We were very awkward with each other, unusually so. "Well then I guess I'll be going." He walked over and picked up the belt off the floor, and then prepared to leave. I didn't want to think about how his belt got mixed in with the clothes that Valerie had been wearing the previous night.

Just as he turned to leave, he turned back to me. "Are you okay?"

"Yes. Why?" The question startled me and I immediately jumped to the offensive.

And he took the defensive. "No reason. Just wondering if you were okay…because…well...last night…" He didn't possess the words to finish.

"I talked to Valerie and now I'm better." I showed a small smile.

"I'm glad." Which he returned.

"Thank you." My smile widened. "I saw Valerie's engagement ring."

This seemed to catch him off-guard, and it was cute how he blushed and how embarrassed he seemed to be. "Oh really? And what do you think of her as your mother?"

"I couldn't be happier. Also, I think Hoshi will be happy too. I knew you two would get together. I told Hoshi so, but she didn't believe me. You belong together." I smiled as he smiled, and he walked over to kiss me on the forehead.

"I'm glad that you're glad. I love you Thorn." And with a hug he made his way back to his room.

"I love you too." He waved over his shoulder and shut the door. My heart lurched and I felt strange. It was like I would never see him again.

I shook that horrible feeling away and got out of bed, going up to my room to get dressed. I passed my sister in the hall already fully dressed, and not a hickey in sight. "Where's Lucy?" I couldn't help but ask.

She shrugged in a nonchalant way, but I could tell she was worried. "He was with me when I went to sleep, but when I got up this morning he was gone. He left a note on my pillow saying not to worry and that he'd be back after he finished the game. Whatever that means. Normally I wouldn't worry, but he's been sort of off lately, and…well, you know. I worry about him." She sighed briefly, but soon enough forgot her own troubles and focused on me. "What of your man? Did you patch things up with Akira yet?"

I took for granted that I hadn't told her about Akira and Lian, so I didn't suspect her of setting me up when she brought up the subject. I had simply forgotten that I hadn't told her. "No. Not yet. I'm waiting for him to make the first move."

She smiled sweetly at me as one might smile at a child. She walked off saying "Sometimes you have to take initiative Thorn and start things in motion yourself."

I nodded, but the words didn't really sink in, for I had reached the door to my room, and there at the base, halfway slid under the door was an envelope, which read: 'To my dearest Thorn, From Akira. Please let me explain.' I picked it up and tore into it, taking the letter from inside. It was a simple note, but it made me smile wider than I have ever smiled before.

_Dear Thorn, I'm so sorry for having deceived you. Please let me explain myself. I need to speak with you in private. Please meet me outside _Moon and Stars Café and Bakery _at 10:30 am where we will talk over breakfast. I love you, and want nothing so desperately as to make this relationship work. Love, with all of my being, Tao Akira._

I didn't have much time seeing as it was 10:16 at the moment, and I still had to get dressed. I rushed to throw some nice clothes on, something that would perhaps make me look pretty, and ran out of the house without telling a soul where I was going.

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Thanks To: isa18, Lady Valandario, MaiValentinefan, DarkPisces33, yo wuz up, Tori or none, Andrea Nefisto, thoughtless dreamer, Ishimaru Miwa, HAO-Addictive, and Ayume Yamashira.


	44. Sibling Rivalry

Mikau: Hello everyone! It's late, I'm tired, but I wanted to get this update in. I also wanted to tell everyone that I got the role of Helene, the maid, in "A Doll's House"! Okay, I'm going to bed. Enjoy the chapter!

**_Disclaimer:_** I don't own Shaman King.

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Sibling Rivalry

It was only six o'clock in the morning, and yet, I was up. I had had trouble sleeping the previous few nights, and had developed a bad case of insomnia. None of my companions seemed to satisfy me anymore. I found myself bitter and short tempered. Of course I had always had a bad disposition, but it had gotten worse.

It was only six o'clock in the morning, and yet I had already gone through several decanters of wine, then moving on to gin, followed by vodka, and straight into vermouth. No matter how I drank, I never got drunk. I was quite fed up with it all.

It was only six o'clock in the morning, and yet I had gone through a pack of cigarettes. I lit one after another at first using my lighter (the one Adella got me for my birthday; the one with flames on it.), but soon my thumb got tired and I resorted to using the burnt out end of one to light the next. One of my many servants made a crack about me becoming a chain smoker, and I promptly sent them off to be tortured. Normally I would have had a better sense of humor about the whole thing, but today I was not in the mood.

"What's the matter?" An angel-sweet voice interrupted me from my rant.

A rare smile lit my face. There before me stood my only source of joy in life. "Hey Adella. What makes you so sure something's wrong?"

At six o'clock in the morning, somehow she knew I was up. She had come in to keep me company while she did the books. Adella sat down on the love seat, setting her books on the coffee table, as I sat across from her on my throne.

"Damien, I can tell when something is wrong with you. Don't you think I know you well enough?" She opened her book, turned on her calculator, and set off to work. She was the only person who could get away with calling me by my given name. Well, except for maybe my brother. Maybe.

"You're overacting. I'm fine. Hey have you seen Lucifer today?" I tried to act indifferently to my little brother's location.

"Nope." Not the answer I wanted to hear. "No one's seen him for—Oh, I don't know—a few weeks now? Don't worry, he'll be back."

I picked up on the comforting tone in her voice. I was quick to eradicate her suspicions of me caring about my brother. "I'm not worried. I was just wondering where on earth angel-boy was. I was going to boss him around or something."

She smiled, on to my little secret. "You don't have to act like that. You never smoked before Lucifer disappeared, and two days after he went missing you started smoking. Plus your drinking has gotten a lot worse lately. It's okay to be worried about your little brother." I may not have liked Lucifer, but he was missed if he was gone for a long period of time.

"Don't be ridiculous Adella, I'm not worried about him. I'm just slightly concerned." He had probably gotten himself killed or something…

It was silent for a little while. We sat there just enjoying each other's company, she working on balancing the books, and I drinking like it was going out of style. We both jumped when this comfortable silence was disrupted by the phone ringing. Adella got up and turned the abominable contraption on speakerphone.

"Hello, Adella speaking. Who is this?"

_"It's Botan from the docks; hello Adella!"_

"Hey Botan! What's up?" They immediately started chatting in schoolgirl rigmarole of 'he said she said'. At least that's what it sounded like to me. They talked so fast and it was like birds chirping back and forth. Adella had the cutest look on her face as she chatted away with Botan.

What was really said was somewhat along the lines of Botan saying that she had just let Lucifer off at the docks outside my palace, but he had looked different. The blue-haired ferrywoman also said something about something in his eyes.

Adella thanked Botan, said her goodbyes, and hung up, but as soon as she did, there was another call coming in, this time from downstairs. A girl was calling to inform us that Lucifer was on his way up. This woman too said that there was something odd about my younger sibling.

"Where do you suppose he's been?" Adella looked quizzically at me.

"Probably on earth. He seems to like it there." I shrugged a shoulder. Now that I knew my stupid kid brother was safe, I could go back to pretending to have nothing but utter disdain for him.

"Hmm…. Yes. I suppose so. Do you think he's having a fling with some girl? Last time he visited I vaguely remember his saying something about a girl."

I couldn't help but openly laugh. "_My_ brother and a girl! HA! He may be in love with one, but I seriously doubt that he's actually _with_ anyone. He wouldn't know which end went where."

"Oh be nice to your little brother. Ahh!" She jumped when someone knocked rather loudly for six o'clock in the morning on the door.

"Come in." I beckoned in a bored tone.

The door opened and in stepped my brother. He did look different, not at all like the meek, little thing that I had framed and got tossed out of Heaven. There was a certain look in his eyes, one that was not unfamiliar to me. It was a look of total control of the situation. Even the way he carried himself was different. Normally he would try to stay compact and…well, little, taking up the least possible space. It was like he was trying to disappear. Now he walked with an air of confidence. I wasn't fooled though. I could see that something huge was weighing over his head, and it was troubling him greatly.

"Oh. It's you. What do you want?" I feinted disinterest as he approached.

"I need to talk to you." He turned and spared one of his old smiles for Adella. "Alone."

She smiled back and nodded, picking up her books and heading for the door.

I held up my hand and Adella stopped. "She'll stay." I wanted to test this new brother of mine. What would he do if I challenged his authority and acted as his superior?

"I'd rather that she not hear what I have to say." Two cold, black pools of hate glared at me. Murder's eyes.

Something was up, but I didn't show the tiniest bit of recognition on my face. "All right then. Adella if you'd leave us." She took her cue and left with a slight nod to me and a smile for Lucifer.

The door closed behind my angel, and we continued our talk. "So where have you been these past weeks?"

"Nowhere of significance." He shrugged me off like a rebellious teenager and took a seat across from me on the loveseat.

"And what where you up to while you were at nowhere of significance?" I smirked mildly down at him, swinging my legs over the arm of my throne.

"Nothing." His answers were brief and nondescript. He was up to something.

Just for my own amusement I threw in, "And did you get any?" He only gave me a death glare as a response. My smirked to a disapproving stare. "Well I am your brother after all. If I'm not allowed to ask those kinds of questions, then who is?" I smirked yet again for emphasis, but still got no response from him.

"And why the hell did you come back? If you were happy on earth with that human girl, then why didn't you stay there and marry her? It's not like anyone down here would miss you. Well, there are some girls that would a little, but after a while they'd eventually forget." I shrugged.

"Look Damien, I need your help." This was not like my brother at all.

"Who is this girl anyway?" I dropped my stuck up façade for a minute to satisfy my curiosity. Who was this woman who changed my brother so?

"I'd rather not say—"

I couldn't help but interrupt to tease. A small part of my old, shy little brother had come out, and I had to seize the opportunity. "Oh come now Lucy, I—"

"Look Damien, are you going to listen to what I have to say or not?"

He had interrupted me. I sat there with my mouth hanging open. It wasn't exactly that he had interrupted me, but more of the way he said it. He had been openly rude to me. Normally he wouldn't dare, and normally I would smite him for showing such disrespect. But I just sat there staring with my mouth open.

I regained my composure and swung my legs off of the arm of the chair. My smile returned. "Seriously, I want to know who this girl is. What has she done to give you such self-confidence? Normally you would never be able to act toward me like that, but now…."

"Her name is Hoshi." He was back to his short answers.

"Oh, that's right! The prostitute that we were talking about last time. I see you really hit it off with her. And you're deeply in love with her." I smiled somewhat kindly at him.

"I need your help." He repeated.

"Start talking before I get bored of your presence and stop listening." I smiled and he began to speak.

By the end of his speech my mouth was hovering slightly above the floor tiles again, and a grave look was deeply etched into my face. "Are you sure you want to do this? There's no turning back once you begin."

"It's already begun. Like you said, I can't turn back now that we're so near the end. As you can see, I need your assistance brother. Will you help me?"

How could I turn him down? He was yet again my scared little brother begging for my help. He wasn't the least self-sufficient, and he still acknowledged my superior powers over his, and he knew his place. The Lucifer I saw walk in wasn't the real Lucifer, but a fake front. True that being with Hoshi had given him a major confidence boost, but he did not yet think himself higher in status than I was. He knew my place above him, but he now realized that his place was not down on his hands and knees at my feet, but more like standing next to me a few steps behind.

"Sure, I'll help you this time for free, but next time you owe me." With a wink from me and a nod from him he left, a smile upon his face.

I could see beneath it though. He was scared out of his wits. I found myself thinking that I too would be at least a little frightened if I had to take a course of action that would endanger my relationship with Adella.

Sure I didn't like my little brother, but of course I didn't hate him like I pretended. I saw him as my reflection in a mirror that was a window to another, parallel world. He was a constant reminder of what I could have been if I would have kept on the straight and narrow.

But of course if I _had_ kept walking straight I never would have met Adella. No, I didn't like or hate my brother. I hoped he could be what I had chosen not to. I could not marry Adella because of what we both were; I didn't want the same thing to happen to Lucifer and Hoshi. I wished him the best of luck.

It was only six o'clock in the morning, and yet was it too early to confess my love to her? I might not have been able to marry her, but I could always tell her how I really felt. I silently wished my brother good luck, and went to go find Adella.

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Thanks to: Lady Valandario, isa18, MaiValentinefan, thoughtless dreamer, HAO-Addictive, yo wuz up, Andrea Nefisto, Sonseray, and KaZuYa MiNeKuRa.

PLEASE REVIEW!


	45. Break Down

Mikau: Hello. It's late again. I'm posting this and then going to bed. I'm sorry for not acknowledging the reviews this time, but you all know who you are, and that I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your devotion. Also, thanks for your congratulations on getting the Doll's House role.

**_Disclaimer:_** I don't own Shaman King.

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Break Down

Desperate? No. Desperate didn't even begin to cover how I felt. In a state of complete and utter despair? Maybe that was a little closer, but again, it wasn't close enough to my actual feelings. I was beyond worrying or fear. I was having a total melt down. I had been up since five o'clock in the morning, and even though I had blown almost the entire lab to kingdom come, I had made absolutely no progress. The heart that lay on my lab counter didn't beat no matter how I coaxed it, cut it, or poured chemicals onto it.

I was panicking now. Tears freely poured down my face like rain. Brown stains marred my fingers, probably from the Sulfur I had been messing with, and I was coughing—hacking up blood. I smiled bitterly up at heaven and its way of mocking me. Not a single drop of blood moved through my veins, yet I sure seemed to be coughing a lot of it up. Complete and total desperation over took me as I counted down the hours until my death.

I felt like it wasn't yet time, but I suppose all people feel that way before it ends. I was no exception. I felt like I hadn't done anything with my life. Who had I ever helped? Whose life had I touched? Did anything good ever come of my stay on this earth? What had I ever done to make a difference? I stepped back and examined my life as I mixed together some chemicals. I found nothing special. Maybe someone else looking back over my life could find something interesting or worthwhile, but I couldn't. There was nothing in my life that I found meaningful. Maybe it was just the pit of depression I was sinking slowly into like molasses, but I felt absolutely worthless.

I felt all of my years had been barrowed time, and that that barrowed time had not been well spent. I had utterly wasted my life. I had been a bad mother, a bad wife, and a bad person in general. I was selfish and conceited, and above all, ungrateful. I had been given a second chance at life by the angels, and I had done nothing with it.

I looked into the mirror on the wall and sighed. My eyes had turned bright green, probably from the Fluorine, and my hair was now navy blue, probably from the Cobalt. My hair had also gotten quite a bit shorter. Now it was only down to my chest. I don't know if one of the explosions or mixtures of chemicals had burned it away or what, but I looked drastically different without it.

I only had a few hours left. Two, three, four? It didn't matter. I wasn't taking this lying down. I would fight until the very end. I didn't want to die. That thought rang over and over in my head like a gong struck on top of a mountain echoing in the valleys below. At first the echo was a strong, empowered voice. "I don't want to die so I'm not going to." But as it went on and on it got faster and louder and more desperate, "I don't want to die! I don't want to die!" until it was a helpless plea of "Please don't let me die!"

Before I knew it, I was down on my knees sobbing. Something toppled over and crashed to the floor. I screamed as a huge explosion shook the house. Things fell off of shelves and chemicals exploded in a chain reaction. Flames burst out of nowhere as two chemicals combined and then were either extinguished or fed as another chemical fell into the flames. I screamed and screamed until suddenly all at once the flames died. I sat there on the floor and stared blankly at where the flames had been. They were no longer there as I thought. But they had been there, hadn't they? Was I losing it? Was my mind to be taken from me before my life was too? Did I just imagine the flames? No. It couldn't be. Something caught my eye among the fallen shelves and spilt chemicals.

"Ivy! Ivy!" Someone was shaking me. I was too busy staring off into the rubble to notice. "IVY!" Two voices. "MOM! MOM!" "IVY!" Something hard, a backhand, whipped across my face. I jumped and my eyes locked with two glassy, obsidian marbles.

"Anna? Hoshi?" I blinked.

"Mom?" My eldest daughter looked spellbound at the sight of me, just as I had been by the flames twinkling like a night's sky in front of me. "You look beautiful." I could only stare at her and wonder what she was looking at. I was sure I looked awful and bedraggled and horrible in general.

"Ivy, look." Anna handed me a mirror and showed me what Hoshi was talking about.

I looked into the mirror and almost fainted. Bright red lips, shoulder-length coffee brown hair, a backwards 3 framing the right eye, and deep brown eyes so dark they appeared black. I was beautiful. It was a beauty I had missed so much while I was trapped in that silver haired and various color eyed monster. I wasn't just beautiful, I was me again. The last shreds of Valerie were pealing away and I could see Ivy again. I got completely lost in my reflection restored.

"Ivy, are you all right?" My sister smoothed my hair out of the way, and gazed anxiously into my dim eyes.

I nodded, and put a hand to my head. "I'm…fine. I just…I don't know what happened. I'm…I'm dying. I was scared and I…I was trying to make a new body…. I was having a complete and total emotional break down, and then—I don't know—something fell and then the flames…. Look over there." I pointed over to where I had been looking among the wreckage.

"Oh my god." My sister carefully pushed some of the rubble out of the way and gaped at what she saw. "It's a body. A living, breathing body." She felt of its neck and put an ear to its chest. I held my breath. Would it be like so many of my fake bodies before? Would it be just another attempt to barrow more time? Or would it be different? Would it give me my life back? "It's got a pulse and a heartbeat too! Oh Ivy! You've done it! You've finally done it! Oh, and all on your own too!" All of the sudden I found myself in my daughter's and sister's arms. Anna's words had not completely sunk in yet, and I sat there stupidly with a huge goofy grin on my face.

"You mean… It's the completed body I've been working on for so many years? It's finally done? I can…I can go back to Hao and Thorn and Hoshi now and be alive again?" Just when I thought my world was caving in on me, a big bright beacon of hope broke through. I daren't believe it, not just yet because if something should happen and the body wasn't stable, I didn't want to fall too far into despair because of disappointment.

"I can have Faust take a look at it, but I think this one will work. I'll go get him now." She ran upstairs to fetch the doctor, but she left me with an unanswered question.

I picked up a broken shard of glass. "But does it bleed?" I slowly approached the featureless body and held my breath as I sat down next to it and pressed my fragment of glass to its pale skin. My blood red lips slowly parted, revealing ivory white teeth, as an equally red liquid trickled down the equally white skin.

"Mom I'm so happy for you!" Hoshi hugged me tightly and smiled brightly, but I could tell something was distracting her. She had a far off look in her eyes.

"What's the matter?" I stood and gently caressed her grave looking face.

"Oh, it's nothing." She tried to cover things up with a smile, but I wasn't fooled. My face must have showed this because she nodded solemnly and continued. "It's just that I'm worried about Lucifer. He left early this morning and I don't know where he is. He left a note, but it was really quite vague, and he didn't say specifically when he would be back, and…well, you know. I'm really worried about him."

My arms surrounded her and I patted her on the back reassuringly. "Why don't you go look for him? He couldn't have gone too far, and I'm sure it will make you feel better if you're out looking rather than just sitting here feeling worried and useless."

Her smile assured me that my words had been comforting enough and that I had consoled her adequately. "Thanks Mom. I'll do that." With a smile in her eyes she headed out on the town to search.

I returned to my investigation of my new body. It was beautiful. It had no features yet, so it looked nothing like me, but that was how they all were at first. Once my soul was put inside, then it would take my form. I couldn't help but smile as I thought of how I had finally made it out of the woods after so many years. I would finally be able to go back to my life.

"It's down here." The background noise faded back in and I heard Faust and Anna coming down the stairs to examine the body further.

"Good morning Miss Ivy. You look wonderful today." Dr. Faust greeted.

"Why thank you." I was equally pleasant back to him. "You look rather well yourself."

"I wouldn't say that." He smiled and turned to appraise the body. "It could take an hour or two to completely check this thing, so why don't you go somewhere Ivy? I do believe that it's almost time for your and Hao's date, isn't?" He winked teasingly as I wondered how he knew. "Hao left a little while ago saying he was going ahead of time and that he would meet you at The Moon and Stars Café and Bakery."

I nodded and started on my way upstairs to change. I didn't want to go on a date with Hao in my red tank top and black capris. The phone rang and I jumped at the sudden noise. I was closest, so I picked it up. "Hello. Funbari Onsen. Ivy speaking; how may I help you?"

"_Ivy, it's Hao."_ His voice was tear-laced, and his tone made my heart stop beating and my blood freeze in my veins. _"We'll have to reschedule our date. I'm at St. Lucy, Patron of Eyes Hospital. Get here as fast as you can; it's Thorn."_


	46. Traitor

Mikau: Hello! I'm officially on Spring Break! So while all my friends go to Florida, I've decided to lock myself in my room and type. I'm excited to finally have an opportunity to sit down and do nothing but write. I've been so busy since I last updated. The morning after I last update I got up and felt so sick. I had the flu. It was pretty horrible. All I did was lie in bed and sleep all day. I finally got up and went to school on my birthday. I had a really great birthday. And then that weekend was Into the Woods, and I worked backstage moving set pieces. There was only one blackout for the entire show, and no set pieces moved during that blackout, so all the set people had to wear costumes so we could go out on stage to move things while the lights were on. I got to where one of the Silly Girls' dresses from Beauty and the Beast. It fit perfectly, but it had this horrible plunging neckline, so I really couldn't bend over much with all the boys backstage. Then after Into the Woods closed, I had A Doll's House rehearsal every night. I finally got to sit down and type today, and here's the next chapter!

**_Disclaimer:_** I don't own Shaman King.

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Traitor

Lucifer had been exceptionally amazing that night and I was exhausted. I just barely woke up as he got out of bed early that morning. I could tell he was trying to slip away without waking me. I caught him by the wrist as he snuck out of bed.

"Lucy, it's three o'clock in the morning; where are you going?" I sleepily whispered.

"Shhh…. I won't be gone very long. Don't worry." He kissed me lightly and gently freed his wrist from my loose grip. "Go back to bed."

"So you're just going to leave me?" I sighed weakly, sleep still tightly binding me.

"Hoshi…. I promise I'll be back." He pulled away and slipped on his clothes. "I love you."

"Really?" I couldn't help but try him.

"Hoshi, I'd die for you." He sat back down on the bed beside me and played with a tress of my crimson-brown hair. "I love you that much. I finally understand what love means, and it gives me the courage to go on."

He smiled sadly, kissed me again and walked slowly toward the door. "Goodbye. I love you." I swear I heard him mutter under his breath, 'I'm so sorry Hoshi, but it has to be done.'

I awoke the next morning to the sound of explosions. 'Mom's back down in her lab again.' I didn't want to open my eyes yet; it was too early. I couldn't tell what time it was thanks to my bedside alarm clock flashing 12:00 o'clock. There must have been a storm or something knocking out the power earlier that morning after Lucifer left and I had fallen back asleep.

'Lucifer!' I sat straight up in bed, now fully awake. I had no idea where he had gone, when he would be back, or why he had gone in the first place. I rushed out of bed to pull on some clothes. I nearly overlooked the piece of orangey-red paper on my pillow, anchored down by a red velvet jewelry box.

'It's too big to be a ring case.' I sighed, somewhat disappointed. I opened the case and gaped wide-eyed at the beautiful ruby phoenix necklace. I held it up to the light and admired it as the light particles refracted, sparkling, gleaming like falling stars. It looked gorgeous on me as I modeled it in front of my bedroom mirror.

Once I got over my stunning new accessory, I picked up the note my boyfriend had left and read it. Once I was done I read it again. And then again. It didn't make any sense.

_"I'm sorry to leave on such short notice, but I have been planning this for some time. Thank you for showing me the true meaning of love. You've helped me to reach my full potential as a person, and gave me confidence in myself. I love you, and hope you'll take me back when this is all over. I'll return to you once I finish the game. Forever yours, Lucifer, King of the Underworld."_

I stared that the slip of parchment. All I could do was stare. 'What the hell _is_ this? And where does he get off signing "Lucifer, King of the Underworld"? I'm his girlfriend for crying out loud! He could at least sign "Lucifer-koi" or something like that…'

"And just what does he mean 'finish the game'? What is this?" I sighed pathetically and placed the letter on my desk on top of some medical text. 'And why do I have such a horrible feeling about this?'

I put on a tight pair of blue jeans, a white tank top, and a crocheted burgundy sweater. I was wearing fall clothes in the middle of spring because I was unnaturally cold that day. My blood ran like icy floodwaters in my veins. Something in the brisk air made me shiver uncontrollably. Something was wrong. I could sense it, but I couldn't tell what it was.

I stepped out of my bedroom and nearly ran over my little sister. I exchanged words of little consequence with Thorn and then was on my way. I ate a small breakfast, but was too distracted to remember what exactly it was that I had put into my body. My mind was somewhere else that entire morning.

I was finally woken from my dreamlike state when explosion after explosion sounded from the basement laboratory. Anna and I rushed downstairs only to see Ivy engulfed in a sea of flames. She sat there soullessly staring off into the fire. I was too numb with shock to do anything, but Anna must have gotten a fire extinguisher and put out the flames, for it seemed to me that the flames were there one minute, but not the next, and there sat my mother on the floor still staring off into the rubble.

She was beautiful; she looked exactly like I had seen her in pictures: gorgeous. Shoulder-length coffee-colored locks, charcoal black eyes, and perfect pale complexion. I must have said something, and I remember hugging her joyously, but everything was such a blur.

"Look." She pointed into the rubble at a body. Anna and Ivy exchanged excited exclamations at the discovery at a fully working body. I added a few comments here and there, but my mind was elsewhere.

My mother seemed to notice my far away gaze, and asked, "What's the matter?"

"Oh, it's nothing." I mumbled under my breath, not wanting to worry her. She gave me 'the look' and I had no choice but to share my problems. "It's just that I'm worried about Lucifer. He left early this morning and I don't know where he is. He left a note, but it was really quite vague, and he didn't say specifically when he would be back, and…well, you know. I'm really worried about him."

She smiled, trying to reassure and comfort me. "Why don't you go look for him? He couldn't have gone too far, and I'm sure it will make you feel better if you're out looking rather than just sitting here feeling worried and useless."

"Thanks Mom. I'll do that." I smiled slightly and went off on my way to search for my missing boyfriend. Even the searching was a blur to me. It was like a smudged chalk drawing. I walked pass trees and bushes and houses and shops, but I didn't really see any of it. My mind was too far away to register anything.

'Where is he?' I was completely inundated in my thoughts, lost in the inner corridors of my mind. I found myself in the local park sitting on a bench by the pond. I let out a heavy sigh. I had been sighing a lot lately. I tossed some breadcrumbs into the pond for the ducks as they swam by.

Laughing children ran pass, yipping puppies and brightly colored kites in tow. I smiled at them as they waved to me, but the smile was a fake, a façade. I was really in no condition to smile. My heart felt like it was breaking inside of me, bleeding. It physically hurt. It burned. It was as if a part of my body had been severed from me. I felt sick and worried. Something horrible was happening. My soul was being torn from my body.

I blinked and cleared my mind of all thoughts. "You're overreacting." I got up from the bench, but my legs folded under my weight. I gasped, sucking in the cold morning air. This wasn't just my mind playing tricks on me. This was real. Something had happened. I curled up on the ground in excruciating pain. Every single one of my bones felt broken, but I couldn't see anything wrong with my body on the outside. My vision was going black. I was going to pass out from all this pain. Right before everything was encompassed in darkness, a horrific image passed before my eyes. 'Thorn…'

"HOSHI!" Two familiar arms propped me up in their embrace. "Hoshi, can you hear me! It's Lucy! Come on Hoshi…"

The pain lessened considerably as he held me to his chest, cradling me. My eyes flickered open and I gazed tiredly up at him, still feeling weak. His appearance was a little disheveled, but it was him. "Lucifer? Where were you? I was worried…."

"Shh…. It's okay now. Everything is going to work out. How do you feel?" He pushed bangs out of his face and my own, and I saw the beginnings of tears in the corners of his eyes.

An exhausted smile painted my lips. "I feel a bit better now. I don't know what happened, but all of the sudden I was in this immense pain, and right before my vision went totally black I saw Thorn. She was bleeding and it was just so horrible seeing her lying there like that." I gripped desperately at his kimono-sleeved red shirt.

He smoothed my hair and held me close. "Shh… It'll be okay. Just take deep breaths." Silence reined over us and he looked down at me apologetically. "God, Hoshi I'm so sorry." He pulled me closer.

I wiped the tears from his eyes and smiled reassuringly. "It's okay, you've done nothing wrong."

'You've no idea…' I swear he said something, but I couldn't hear him mumbling under his breath.

"Will you help me up?" He nodded and lifted me to my feet.

Just then my cell phone rang, letting out a burst of "Hana, Hoshi, Sora". I answered the phone and spoke uncertainly, "Hello?"

"_Hoshi? It's Ivy. Come to St. Lucy, Patron of Eyes Hospital, and go to room six hundred sixty-six. I'll explain when you get here." _She hung up before I could say anything. It sounded as if she was in a great deal of pain, trying to choke back the tears.

I looked in utter panic at Lucifer. "That was my mom. I have to go to the Patron of Eyes Hospital." My voice was hollow; I didn't yet fully understand what was going on.

"I'll drive you." He helped me to his car and we set off at what must have been an illegal speed. The whole time I sat staring out at the scenery, not really taking in much of it. 'Something is wrong. Someone is hurt.' The thoughts kept tumbling over and over in my mind like wet socks in a dryer.

We got to the hospital and found the room on the third floor. It was one of the rooms in the intensive care unit. I clasped Lucifer's hand tightly and he put an arm around me. I took a deep breath and opened the door. The Asakuras, Akira, Makoto, Ivory, and that annoying detective Lyserg were inside.

Anna and Yoh comforted Hana, Ivory and Makoto sat over to the side quietly crying, Lyserg stood off in the corner observing the others, Ivy and Hao tightly embraced, crying in each other's arms, and Akira sat staring at the person in the hospital bed hooked up to countless machines. He had such a blank look on his face like he had been completely wiped of emotion, and no longer possessed a soul. He sat ridged and unmoving like a deactivated robot.

When my mother noticed I arrived, she broke away from my father and nearly crushed me in the tightest hug I had ever received. "Oh my God Hoshi…" My father followed quickly behind her, taking me in his own arms when my mom was finished.

I gave them both frightened and confused looks. "What's going on?"

My father led me over to a chair and sat me down. My mom rubbed my back and held me in a half hug while Hao talked. "Hoshi, there's been an accident."

My thoughts immediately rushed back to in the park when I had almost passed out. The last thing I saw before things started to go completely black was Thorn lying on the ground bleeding. My hands started to shake and my father continued.

"Thorn was out front of the Moon and Stars, and there was a truck loaded with those concrete pipes they use for construction. Well, the chains holding the pipes on the truck broke and…" He couldn't go on.

I stared at him in utter horror. I refused to accept what he was saying. It couldn't be true. My brain wouldn't allow me to process the information. My face lost all its color, and I stared at him, unbelieving, until my mother started talking.

"Hoshi honey, she's not going to make it. The doctors tried everything and they've done all that they could for her, but…. Hoshi, the pipes nearly crushed her to death, and there was too much internal and external bleeding, and even if they could save her life, her entire lower body was completely crushed, and her spinal chord has been severed, and…" She couldn't go on. Ivy broke down in tears and sought comfort in Hao's arms.

"Hoshi?" Hao questioned softly.

"Is she still alive?" I asked, my voice shaking.

"Yes, but not for long. She won't last the hour." My mom tried to dry her tears, but they kept flowing.

I got up out of the chair and stood beside Akira as he gazed down at my sister. Her body had almost entirely been destroyed. Her lowered body was crushed, and the rest was in a full body cast. Her face, however, still remained more or less pretty as always. It had several scratches and cuts and scrapes, but for the most part, her face remained intact.

The next thing I knew I was crying. As I watched the levels on the monitor slowly decline, I could sense her spirit drifting further and further away from me. It donned on me that she would never open those dark chocolate eyes ever again. She would never smile that naïve little grin of hers. She'd never blush innocently or come to me for advice. She was gone.

Lucifer held me close and whispered in my ear. "Hoshi I'm so sorry." I held him just as tightly and cried my heart out.

"This wasn't an accident you know." The green-haired detective in the corner spoke.

"What do you mean?" My father growled softly. "If you know anything about what happened to my daughter, you better speak up now."

"That's why I came here. I've been put in charge of the investigation. This was a murder; those chains didn't just break, they were burnt—melted. Someone was trying to kill her."

"Who would want to kill Thorn?" Ivy asked breathlessly and indignantly. "She never harmed anyone."

Lyserg rolled his eyes, indifferent to my mother's pain. "Well apparently someone had a grudge against the girl; chains just don't melt themselves after all."

"How would someone burn through that kind of metal? It's nearly impossible for a normal person to get their hands on something that would get that hot. What would they use to melt away those kind of chains?" Anna retorted, voice overflowing with doubt.

"I'm sure I don't know madam, but I plan to find out and crack this case." Lyserg boasted. "I promise to find the murder and bring him or her to justice."

"I love you. Don't you ever forget that." Lucifer whispered softly in my ear so that no one else could hear. He let go of me and stepped forward toward the British detective. "You won't have to look far; your murder is in this room."

"You. Do you know something about this?" My father glared across the room at my boyfriend.

Lucifer slowly nodded.

The green-haired Englishman stepped forward authoritatively. "Who's the culprit? Tell me or I'll have to arrest you for hindering the investigation and withholding evidence from an official."

There was something ironic in the way Lucifer smiled. "You'll have to arrest me anyway. I'm the one you're looking for."

No one moved. Not a muscle moved. No one blinked. No one breathed. No one uttered a solitary syllable. Silence reined, and there were stares. Blank, confused stares on every face. Every face except Lucifer's. His face held only a small, apologetic smile.

"What?" Hao broke the spell on us all.

"I'm your murderer." A simple question, a simple reply.

No one moved as disbelief struck us all.

"Aren't you going to arrest me? I am a criminal after all."

Still no one moved. Lucifer made eye contact with every other person in the room besides me, but nothing happened. The door opened and in stepped a short, orangey-red-haired, forest eyed nurse in a crisp white uniform. She looked at each individual face and apologized with her eyes.

"Bad time? I'm sorry. I'll come back later. I just wanted to tell you that we've done some tests, and are now completely certain that Miss Asakura only has about forty minutes left. Also, everything happens for a reason, and everything is going perfectly according to a higher plan. I'm so sorry that I can't comfort you any more than that. My condolences." The nurse seemed to lock gazes for a brief moment with Lucifer, but only for that quick instant. And then she left.

My gaze met Lucifer's. I stared deep into his eyes, and he looked away.

His eyes dropped to the floor. "Well? What about your justice? Aren't you going to do anything? I brutally murdered your daughter, cousin, niece, sister…"

"STOP IT!" I attached myself to his torso, burying my face in his chest. "Stop lying. Please. Tell them the truth! Tell them that you didn't really do what you said!"

He looked down at me and smiled. Lucifer tried to get me to release my hold on him. "Hoshi, it _is_ true. I did murder her. I'm the one who melted those chains. I'm the one who wrote the letter from Akira that made her go there in the first place. I placed an order for those pipes to be delivered there at that exact time. I planned this. I—"

"—NO! NO, you didn't!" Tears rained from my eyes, flowing like rivers down my cheeks. I could taste them, salty and death cold, in my mouth. "You don't have to take a fall for anyone. You don't have to protect them. Just tell them the truth. You didn't do this…. It was your brother wasn't it? It's okay, you can tell them."

"I'm not trying to protect anyone. I'm simply admitting to my own crime. I did kill Thorn." He smiled sadly and wiped away my tears, but they were soon replaced by more.

"NO." I held him tighter.

"Yes. Hoshi, look at me." He tilted my chin upwards and forced me to meet his eyes. And there I saw it. "Have you ever known me to be able to look you straight in your beautiful blue eyes and lie to you? No. I could never lie to you. Not to you. I love you, and I killed your sister." My heart broke. I could see it in his eyes. He had done what he had said.

I knew it was true, but I still refused to accept it because I couldn't understand why. The floor of my world had been pulled out from under me, leaving me to fall into a deep dark void. It was like a black hole, sucking away all logic from my body, and leaving me on autopilot. That was, until my emotions took the wheel. "No. You love me. You wouldn't do that. You…you wouldn't betray me like that. You…you wouldn't."

"You bastard." Hao's cold, heartless look scared even me. He grabbed Lucifer by the collar, lifting him off of his feet, and getting ready to punch the poor demon.

"No!" I grabbed my father's arm and held it tight to my chest so that he couldn't hurt the man I loved. "Please, he didn't do this to Thorn, Dad. I love him. He wouldn't do this to me. He loves me. He wouldn't hurt me like this."

"He's a cold-blooded, heartless killer. He used you Hoshi." Again everyone froze as a new voice entered the conversation. Akira, without getting up or looking away from where Thorn lay, shot icy daggers of hate at Lucifer in the form of words.

His words stung my own heart as well. I tried to tune him out, but without a drop of logic in my body to contain my wild emotions, his hurtful words leaked in and slowly poisoned my heart. "No…" I tried to protest, but my voice came out weak and strained.

"I would never do that!" Lucifer fought back.

"Quiet demon!" With the wave of a hand, Lyserg seemed to put some sort of silencing spell on the culprit.

"How can you still love a man who killed your own sister?" Akira stood and glared icily at me, his eyes red with tears. "How can you think he loves you when he easily admits to the murder of your own flesh and blood without remorse? Don't you see he's been lying to you this entire time? Entertaining himself with your body and using you to get closer to Thorn so that he could kill her."

I couldn't say a thing to defend him. There was no evidence to prove he was innocent. He had killed my little sister. He had obviously been planning this the entire time, and yet he still acted like he loved me. He had still slept with me. He kissed me and held me and touched me and lied. He had lied. Not just once, and not just twice, but throughout the entire relationship, he had been keeping secrets and lying. Had he truly ever loved me in the first place, or was that all an act?

I slowly shook my head soullessly. "No." Even my voice was hollow. "He—"

"Akira's right Hoshi." Hana spoke for the first time as well. "Back when you first made a deal with him to get the musical cast when we were setting up Thorn and Akira, he tried to have you kill Thorn, and then he put a spell on you so that you couldn't tell anybody. Remember? You told me about it after he took the spell off of you! He was planning this all the way back then!"

My entire body went numb. He _had_ been planning this all from the beginning, and even after having 'fallen in love' with me, he still carried out his plans. He really had never cared. Words started spinning around in my head. Sentences, horrible, horrible, sentences formed. "He used you." "He never loved you." "He was toying with you." "He killed your sister." "He's a monster." "How could you love the devil?" "How could you let this happen?" "It's your fault that Thorn is dead!" "You let him get close to your sister!" "You let your guard down and he took advantage of you." "He doesn't love you." _Hoshi?_ "He doesn't love you." _Hoshi, I can explain. _"He _doesn't_ love you."

A hand reached out and lovingly caressed my face. "Hoshi, I can explain why I did this. I love you, and—"

"—Get away from me!" I jerked away from my X-boyfriend.

He looked completely and utterly shocked. "Hosh?"

"It's Hoshi to you, you pig! How could you lie to me and use me like that while pretending to love me?" My unchecked emotions flared up into an emotional outburst.

Lucifer tried to quell my anger. "Hoshi, you don't understand. I—"

"—I understand perfectly. You used me to further your goal of killing my sister!" I walked over to Thorn's bedside and kissed her lovingly on the forehead. I whispered softly to my dying sister. "I'm sorry that I couldn't keep that monster away from you. It's my fault that I let him into my life and fell for his tricks. I'm sorry that you had to pay for it with your life." I sauntered over to Lucifer and glared at him with an intense and powerful loathing. "And now that you've succeeded in your diabolical plans, leave me alone! I never want to see you for as long as I live and even after that, you bastard!" I punched him for all that I was worth, and ran as far away from that hospital as shamanly possible.

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Mikau: Okay, no hate mail or whining or complaints of "Why did you kill Thorn?" or "Why did you break up Lucy and Hoshi?" or "Why did you have Lucifer kill Thorn?" Please don't hate me? It was my birthday on the 10th after all. (Yea! I'm finally 16!)

Thanks to: demon thing, isa18, yo wuz up, Lady Valandario, thoughtless dreamer, Andrea Nefisto, Sonseray, LisaTheHedgehog, Ayume Yamashira, -BeLLe33-, and KaZuYa MiNeKuRa.

PLEASE REVIEW!


	47. An Explanation

Mikau: Hello! Well, it's finally done, the next chapter of TBT. There will probably be two more, another chapter, and then the epilogue. So much for the original "It will probably be about 20 chapters, maybe less." Right Kara. Right. I can never accurately guess the number of chapters that I'm going to write…Oh well. As it turns out, TBT is longer than the original I,SR even though I,SR has 74 chapters, it is only 516 pages long. TBT is now up to 560 pages, and it's still going. Anyway, this chapter is my baby. I've worked long and hard on it pretty much non-stop all of Spring Break. It's 12,800 words long exactly, and explains all the twists and turns and plot twists in TBT, and is pretty much the product of all my hard work the past year. I started I,SR on March 23 of last year, and am happy to say I think my writing has improved since then, but you can be the judge. I'm extremely proud of this chapter, so I hope you enjoy it!

**_Disclaimer:_** I don't own Shaman King.

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An Explanation

She punched him. She yelled and she cried and she punched him. And then I had no more desire to do so. She left and the look on his face was enough. I couldn't physically hurt him anymore than she had. Whenever a body is in immense pain, it shuts out all lesser pains, and focuses all of its energy on the greatest pain. If I hit him, then he wouldn't feel a thing. The pain he felt from Hoshi's punch would negate anything I did to him.

I tried to cut him with my words. "You bastard. I trusted you with one daughter's heart, and now you've gone and hurt both of them!" He didn't hear me.

Akira smiled at his handiwork. "You deserved it. You took away the woman I loved, and now I've turned the woman you love against you. I only wish I could do more to destroy you, you demon." The Tao boy retook his seat at my younger daughter's bedside.

Hana and his little gang stepped to one side of the room to murmur quietly and comfort each other. Anna and Yoh sat down on the couch that had been moved into the room for us and lightly embraced. Lyserg the detective stood awkwardly in the middle of the room, uncertain whether to try and arrest Lucifer or not.

Ivy sighed softly and wrapped her arms absent-mindedly around my waist. "Oh Hao what are we going to do?" She was all out of tears, so she could no longer cry or sob or weep. She sighed and closed her eyes, resting her head on my shoulder.

She looked beautiful again. She was acting like the woman I loved, and finally she looked the part as well. She was a little pale, and a little weak, but I couldn't have been more in love with her at that moment. When she had first walked into that hospital, I had thought I was hallucinating, but now that I knew she was real, it only seemed right.

I ruffled her hair and watched stoically as Lucifer slumped into a nearby chair and gazed unfeelingly into the floor. His nose had started to bleed, but he didn't seem to notice.

A thought donned on me. He loved her. He had his reasons for murdering my other daughter, and surely they weren't 'diabolical' as Hoshi had said. They probably weren't the least bit evil as everyone else expected.

"_Where did I go wrong?"_

Thoughts flowed freely into my mind, but I couldn't quite place where they came from.

"_I've been planning for so long, but still everything fell apart. I was so careful, but she still hates me…"_

Lucifer's thoughts trickled into my head.

_I left her early this morning to go arrange things with my brother, and by the time I got back, it was almost time to set the plan into action. I stopped by the graveyard and visited Ivy's grave one last time before I set off to do the job. I remember I said the same thing I always did. I talked through my plans with her headstone and said as I always did: _"I hope you can forgive me Ivy; I really don't mean any harm with my plots, but there's no way to get around the girl getting hurt this time. I promise not to let her suffer."

_I went back to the house and knocked over the chemicals in Ivy's lab creating a new body, and then I set off for the Moon and Stars Café and Bakery. The truck with the pipes was in place, and the truck driver Ryu was inside talking with the headwaiter Lyserg about a Mr. Louis C. Fur who had ordered the pipes. Thorn was outside waiting for Akira because of the note I left for her._

_I remember that I hesitated before melting the chains; I could lose everything if I went through with the plan, but then I assured myself that Hoshi loved me and would understand once I explained. I was sure that she'd forgive me. I even had a back up plan, but now it seems so pointless. She hates me. She wants me dead._

_I whispered softly to myself to restore my courage, "To win a game, first you must sacrifice a few pawns." And then I melted the chains. I closed my eyes, unwilling to watch the pipes crush the poor girl. It was bad enough that I had to listen to her agonized screams. With the falling of those pipes, my whole world came crumbling down upon me._

I broke away from Ivy and offered Lucifer a Kleenex. "Your nose is bleeding, and I don't think the nurses want to have to clean your blood off the floor. This is a hospital after all, and everything must be sterile."

He looked up at me with dull eyes. "So this is blood, ne? I've never bled before…. It's different from liquid flames leaking out of wounds." He tried to smile, but as soon as a ghost of one graced his lips, it vanished and was replaced by tears. Not flames like usual, but wet, watery, human tears.

'Human…' "Oh my god! Is this what you talked to your brother about?" I gaped openly at him.

He nodded, still crying his broken heart out. "I thought she would understand if she heard me out, but thanks to _him_," Lucifer glared poisoned arrows at Akira, "She never wants to see me again. Once I clean this mess up here, I'm going to go die somewhere. I did this for her, but now there's really no point."

I really did pity him. Giving it all up for the woman you love and then being so easily rejected by her.

"What are you talking about, you little traitor?" Anna got up from the couch and approached the broken boy in the armchair, all the while glaring menacingly. "Don't pity him, Hao because he reminds you of yourself and Ivy. I had an agreement with him that he'd work behind the scenes to create opportunities for you and Ivy to get back together, and he went off on his own secret agenda to kill Thorn!"

"He's not a traitor Anna." Ivy stepped into her sister's path and looked pleadingly at her elder twin. "Can't you see he did it for love? I know it sounds crazy, but I don't think he intended to actually kill Thorn in the first place. Maybe it's like how the angels arranged for me to die so that Hao and I would get married. Did you ever stop to think that maybe Lucifer has some sort of other ulterior motive?" Ivy looked pleadingly about the room. "Lyserg, doesn't he get to say something in his defense? Doesn't he have the right to a trial? Let him explain. Maybe it's not really what we think it is?"

Anna rolled her eyes at Ivy's foolishness, but took a seat anyway back next to her husband. "Fine Ivy. Have it your way, but I think you're a fool for giving this demon the benefit of the doubt."

"I agree with Ivy." I put an arm around my wife. "All right demon, talk." I softly nudged Lucifer with my knee.

_33_

Everything was dark and everything was cold. I hurt everywhere. I was sore and pain seemed to freely wash over me like roaring waves. I was scared. I didn't know where I was and I was having trouble breathing. I tried to cry out, but to my dismay, my vocal chords produced no sound.

Black, everywhere I looked, everything I saw, black. Dark, dreary, dead, cold blackness consuming me. I willed my eyes to open, but even when they did everything was still consumed by shadows.

I tried to cry, I was feeling so sorry for myself, but my eyes would produce no tears. I couldn't hear anything either. Not even the ringing noise of silence in my ears.

There was nothing in this black hole I had fallen into. I was trapped in the void forever. I was lost in the darkness, and was slowly slipping into madness. There was no light, no sound, and all I could feel was pain. It was a horrible agonizing pain, but it wasn't enough to make me black out, and it wouldn't kill me. It was just enough to torture me for the rest of all eternity.

I wanted to cry or call out in pain. It was awful, horrible, and I wished with all my being that I would die and the pain would stop.

"Don't you think you're being a bit of a drama queen?" A voice came from out of nowhere and the silence seemed to be instantly dispelled.

I opened my eyes and found myself lying on the ground in some foreign land made almost entirely of volcanoes, lava, soot, and fire. A burning wasteland of flames: my personal nightmare. Even the ceiling seemed to be made of fire and smoke.

"Sorry. I don't know who sent you to the Torture District, but I'll be sure to punish them later. I specifically ordered you delivered to my bedroom." The disembodied voice continued to speak to me. It was then that I noticed the voice was attached to a rather devilishly handsome man with dark, silky, raven's wing hair down to his chest, reddish-brown eyes, black jean pants with no shirt, and a simple chain choker around his neck.

I blinked and tried to ask my whereabouts, but nothing came out of my mouth.

"It's okay, you don't have to say anything. I know very well that you can't. Don't worry. Your voice will come back in time if you're patient. Now, introduction time. I'm Diablo. You can call me Dia if you so wish, but don't call me Damien. I'm Lucifer's older, stronger, and immensely sexier brother. Follow me." With a wave of his hand, my legs stopped hurting, and I was able to move.

I followed him, not understanding why I had been brought to this strange place, and not remembering when I had arrived there. In fact I didn't remember much of anything. I was strangely calm at this discovery. I walked a step behind this strange man and tried to keep up.

While we walked I looked around to further inspect my surroundings. There wasn't much, just a rolling sea of wasteland. Death, destruction, fire, and ashes. A land of shadows lay out before me. We seemed to be following a path, but I couldn't see any set way that we could possibly be following. We walked up a hill and then down. Up another and down again. When we reached the top of the third hill, the entire scenery seemed to change. Back where we had come from, the land looked like a fiery desert wasteland, but at the bottom of this third hill, the ground changed from a clay-like red to an oozy purple. The sky from a dusty brown to midnight blue. I could now see the path we were following, a discolored periwinkle on the violet ground, and at the base of the hill was a lake filled with indigo water that seemed to stretch on for miles. Off in the distance I saw flashing lights surrounding a castle-like mansion. It was far away, but I thought I could make out the red and black bricks of the gothic castle.

"Aaaa…" I tried to speak to my guide, but still couldn't form intelligible words.

"Shhh. Remember, be patient and your voice will come back along with your memories." He smiled sickly sweet, and I got the feeling that I shouldn't trust him despite his good looks and charming personality

Something slithered pass, brushing up against my foot. "AHHH!" I jumped, grabbing at the closest thing to me, desperate to get away from the black cobra at my feet.

Damien chuckled lightheartedly as I held tightly to his arm. He seemed to find something amusing about my fear of snakes. "Shhh…. Take it easy. It can't hurt you in your current condition. Come along now." He smiled and kept leading me along, letting me keep a hold of his arm, not minding the least bit.

He led me down the path and we came to the docks. There was a small rowboat waiting there for us. He helped lower me down into the boat and then entered himself. "Botan. To the Hot Springs District."

With a simple command from the young man, a blue-haired girl appeared and started rowing us to our destination. "Yes Sire."

I was more than just scared. I was beyond all terror and panic and fear. I was so horrified by everything around me that in the end I felt nothing at all. All the pain my body had been under up until then was slowly fading away. I was numb to my pain and my fear. I looked over the side of the boat into the seemingly bottomless water. The dark blue surface was still and looked almost solid. It was like a mirror that I could reach out and touch.

And I saw my reflection. Long, mid-back length hair the color of crushed almonds gracefully flowed over my shoulders and fell in whips about my face. I had milky pale skin and startling brown eyes that were almost dark enough to be black. They looked like twin caves leading down to the center of the Earth. My lips were thin and pale and almost delicate looking. Not to sound vain or anything, but I was gorgeous.

My clothes were a bit messy though. I was wearing what looked to have at one time been a white blouse with some kind of cutesy saying on it, but now it was stained with dark, crimson blood. My blue jeans too were covered in the thick, smelly liquid. I gasped softly at the sight of all the blood. I felt dizzy and sick at the thought of being covered in it.

Damien looked back at me with a questioning gaze. "What's up?"

I motioned to my clothing, hoping that he understood I was asking why I was drenched in blood, and whose blood was it exactly that I was coated in.

He smiled his scary sweet grin again, and my stomach lurched. "Don't worry; that's yours."

I nodded, but didn't truly understand. I looked myself over again and tried to find a wound, a gash, a cut, a scrape, anything that would explain where the blood had come from, but I couldn't find any openings in my skin. I chewed on my lip and gazed back into the water at my pretty reflection.

"It will come back to you soon." Damien assured.

The pain had come back. I was sore again. It was most unpleasant to be in such constant discomfort. I folded my arms and rested them on the side of the boat. I lay my head on my arms and drifted off to sleep as the boat was rocked by the gentle waves.

_It was dark and cold again, but I could hear and feel and see this time. I felt around in the dark for something, anything, but I was boxed in, trapped. Behind me was a wall, and close on both sides, within arms reach, were two more. Even the ceiling brushed against the top of my head. I stretched both arms out in front of me and cautiously inched my way forward. There was no wall there to stop me. I kept walking, hoping to find some way out of the darkness. As if in answer to my prayers, I saw a light. It was dim and far away, but it was a way to escape the nightmare world I had been thrust into. I walked at a gradually increasing rate until I was running._

_Something stung my foot as I stepped upon it in the darkness and I tripped over something in my pathway. I fell to my knees and landed on the wet, stone tunnel floor. Water covered the path, soaking me as I fell into the stagnant puddle. I reached out in the darkness, trying to find the spiky object I had tripped over._

_My hand made contact with something sharp and rope-like. A vine of thorns. More covered the watery path that lay before me. I trudged on through the cold wetness, groping for something to hold on to, but only finding more thorns._

_There was a vast overgrowth of them. They covered the walls and matted the floors. They hung from the ceiling and grabbed at me. They caught at my clothing and tore at my hair. They reached out their amorous hands and lunged at me, raking against my skin, striping away my clothing, and tearing at my hair._

_I cried out in pain as they overtook me, grabbing my legs and restraining my arms and tearing my clothes and touching and feeling and ripping me to pieces. Dividing me into little slices and dolling them out equally to each and every prickly burr on that vine. They wrapped their arms around me and completely entangled me in themselves. They surrounded me, encircling me in a thicket of briars, completely shutting out the light of day at the end of the tunnel from my eyes._

_I stopped struggling. They seemed to like it when I struggled. I closed my eyes and let them take me. I let them do as they desired. They ripped apart my body and tore at my soul. I didn't care. If I died then the nightmare would finally end. The pain would stop, and I could stop being afraid of everything in my life._

_I was afraid to live life to the fullest because I was afraid of getting hurt or in trouble. I didn't allow myself to fully fall in love for the same reason. The same goes for everything else in my life. I was afraid to act on my own or grow up or speak up for myself or try new things or make my own decisions. I was afraid to live._

_And one who has never lived cannot die. And if I don't die, then the pain will continue forever. And I'll never escape my own misery._

"_Thorn!" I could hear a voice from beyond the ball of thorns I was entrapped in._

"_Thorn!" It seemed to come from beyond even the tunnel._

"_Thorn where are you?" 'So Thorn is a person?' I trained my ears in on this voice._

"_Thorn! Will you please just come out already! You win, I'm worried!" It was a woman's voice. A melodic voice I could listen to for a long time and still not get tired of._

"_Thorn!" She sounded very distressed at not being able to find this 'Thorn'._

'_Thorn. Now why does that sound familiar to me? Thorn. What an interesting name. I know I've heard it before though. I can't remember where.'_

_The voice called again. It seemed louder and closer this time. It sounded as if the woman were coming into the tunnel with me. I wanted to warn her about the thorns, but I still couldn't speak. I wanted to shout out, "Be careful or else the thorns will tear you apart!", but I couldn't speak. The only sound I could make was "Aaaa…"_

_She was still coming closer to me and my bed of thorns. I had to warn her to stay away or she too would join me in eternal slumber in my dark, dank, dreary tunnel in my ball of thorns. I had to save her, to help her at least. The thorns' grip tightened on me until I could no longer breath enough to mutter my "Aaaa…" I started struggling again, trying to break free and ward the woman off._

"_THORN! Can you hear me!" 'This Thorn girl must be very lucky to have someone like that to care for her.' I struggled even harder against the restricting might of the thorn ropes._

'_I'm Thorn.' My whole body stopped moving and I remembered this one sentence. 'My name is Thorn.' I tried to remember more. 'I am Thorn Asakura.' The steel cage of thorns I had been trapped in started to give way a little._

"_Thorn!"_

'_I know that voice.' Light started to leak in through the vines._

"_It isn't funny anymore! Thorn, come out NOW!"_

'_I have a sister. That's my sister's voice.' The briar patch melted away, slowly setting me free._

"_Thorn!"_

_I got up and ran, breaking away from the last clinging branches of thorns. I ran for the light. It seemed so much closer now. It was as if I could almost reach out and be able to touch it. I ran through the home stretch of standing water and groping vegetation, and finally made it out of the tunnel._

_I shielded my eyes when I reached the surface. The sun was so bright; it scorched my eyes and warmed my soaked, bloody skin. I stood there for a moment getting use to the light. Birds chirped, a soft breeze blew, and I could hear somewhere, not very far, but not terribly near, waves lapping up against the side of a cliff. Seagulls called to each other, greeting in passing, and the tall grass licked like a loyal canine companion at my scrapped and bleeding legs._

_When my eyes finally adjusted to the bright rays from the sun, I looked around for the woman who had been calling for me. I was at the bottom of a hill standing in front of the entrance to the cave. At the top was a lone dogwood tree overlooking the cliff I had heard waves lapping up against. Seagulls soared majestically and gracefully dove over the ocean, calling to their brothers and sisters as they passed each other. As I walked toward the top, I noticed someone standing by the tree. It was her. It was my sister._

_I began to run up the slope toward my other half, but I underestimated the vast distance I had to run, and soon got tired. I slowed my gate and began to walk breathlessly up the incline. It was to be a long walk. It was as if I was walking down a long corridor, trying to reach the end, but the hallway seemed to stretch out in front of me forever, growing longer and longer just to hinder my progress._

_On my way up I passed a large group of people having a picnic. I recognized them all, but could not recall any names. There was my mother and father sitting at the picnic table, he telling some story or joke and she laughing, all smiles. She held a child I had never seen before in her arms, and she was pregnant again. The child looked no more than a few years old, perhaps one, maybe two at most. He looked directly at me and waved. My mother looked to where her child was waving and saw me. She gasped excitedly and motioned to her husband. He too looked up and they all waved, beckoning me over to them._

_I waved back, but made no advances, so the child came to me. He walked pretty well, only stumbling a few times. He eventually made his way over to me and stretched his arms up way above his head. "Sissy!" He smiled and giggled at me. He had thick orange hair and light baby blue eyes. I couldn't help thinking 'What a beautiful child. He'll have tons of girlfriends when he grows up.' when I looked at him. "Up!" My little brother cooed, and I tried to obey, but as soon as I touched him, he disappeared along with my father and that wretched mother of mine._

_Now sitting at the picnic table were my aunt, uncle, cousin, and his friends. The adult couple sat at the table talking, having some sort of conversation or another, while the teenagers sat on the ground in a circle, talking about things of little consequence. On my cousin's lap sat three children. One brunette, one blonde, and one with crimsony-brown hair. They all looked similar, and all were girls who looked to be about four or five years old. They were dressed in matching dresses of different colors. The blonde wore navy and sky-blue, the crimsony-brown one wore forest and pastel green, and the brunette wore gold and pale yellow._

_My cousin looked up and waved at me, and soon the whole group was waving except one. A violet-blue-haired young man looked at me as if he had seen a ghost. He approached me slowly, but when he finally got close enough to touch me, he whispered under his breath, "Thorn." and he kissed me. But just like before when I tried to pickup my younger brother, when he touched me, he vanished._

_This time the entire group appeared before me all at once. Uncles, aunts, mothers, fathers, children, and friends of the family all gathered in that one place. They waved collectively at me, and I waved back, but kept walking. I needed to get to my sister at the top of the hill. It seemed to me that I walked for hours on end, but it couldn't have been that long, when I reached the top I could still see the picnic goers. I looked down the hill and shook my head. 'What is this? Thorn in Wonderland? Or perhaps, Alice in Wonderland Two: Thorn Falls Down the Rabbit Hole?'_

"_There you are! I've been looking for you for forever!" The beautiful voice from before echoed in my ears once again._

_I turned around and there she was. A woman with waist-length crimson brown hair the color of dead roses, and icy blue eyes that sparkled like a star-filled wintry night, pale skin to match my own, luscious red lips painted with a calculating grin, and wisdom in her eyes collected over her hundred years of life. Her clothes were tight, blue jeans, a white tank top exposing a good deal of her stomach, and a crocheted sweater that didn't look like it would keep out much of the cold._

"_Where were you?" She didn't make a move toward me, but instead turned back to look at the sea._

_I walked over to her and stood by the tree with my sister. "Hoshi?"_

"_Yeah?" She looked curiously at me out of the corner of her eye._

_I smiled and shook my head. "Nothing." I could speak again._

_My elder twin rolled her eyes at me and sighed. "Thorn, I'm getting married."_

"_What?" I turned to fully face her. I remember that she said she never wanted to get married. She always told me that when we were growing up and even when we were 14 and 15 and 16. She had never wanted to settle down and get married. It wasn't like she could start a family, after all, hadn't she specifically told me she was sterile?_

"_Lucifer proposed to me. After college we're getting married." She looked so happy. So, so happy. The way she smiled and laughed and smiled some more. I had never seen her like that before. Sure she had her cheerful times as everyone did, but now my sister was actually, blatantly happy._

"_Congratulations." I threw my arms around her and cried with her. Hers were happy tears; mine were not. I had taken for granted that my sister and I would always live together with our father and the servants and his followers. We were twins. We were born together, and so we would stay. FOREVER. We belonged together. What was she thinking, splitting us up? We were practically the same person. Like a yin yang we were bound together. Two sides of a coin, the sun and the moon, the person looking into a mirror and her reflection, a person and her shadow, two socks, two shoes, chess pieces you need both black and white to play a game. We were bookends. You can't just have one or else everything will collapse. _

_My world was falling apart with her announcement that she was leaving me. I was her shadow, I couldn't survive the harsh light of day if she were not there. If there is no one to look in the mirror, there can be no reflection. A person is made equally of yin and yang, take away one, and you destroy the balance. Half a quarter is worthless. The moon is a dead star that reflects the light of the sun at night; without the sun, it is as if the moon does not exist. A sock or shoe without its mate is useless and gets thrown away. You can't win a match of chess if you have no opponent to beat._

_I was falling into the darkness again. The cliff was crumbling beneath my feet and I was falling. The ocean parted to reveal a black void for me to fall into. Hoshi screamed as she watched my body drop to the sea below, but she soon forgot about me as Lucifer appeared beside her. They embraced and he kissed her again and again and again._

"_AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" I fell lifelessly into the abyss,_ and then I hit the ground.

"Ahhhhhhh!" I screamed again.

"SHHHHHHH!" There was someone else there, and apparently that someone didn't appreciate my screaming bloody murder. "God, why must you mortals make so much noise when having nightmares?"

I gasped and breathed heavily, trying to get a sufficient amount of air back into my lungs as I took in my surroundings. I was on the floor. Cold, black and red tiles covered the floor, and mirrors coated the ceiling. I was in a gothic style bedroom. There were two closets, a full-length mirror, a bedside table, a television to one side of the bed, a row of bookshelves, and a shelf on the wall holding all sorts of things that I didn't want to know what they were or what they were used for. I had fallen out of bed, and was lying on the ground next to it. I was wearing different clothes than the ones I had on when I went to sleep in the boat, and still in the bed beside me was that man that had been leading me around before, Damien.

I stood up and gaped at him. "What did you do to me?"

He stared blankly at me. "Beg pardon?"

"You raped me didn't you! While I was asleep." I glared furiously at him. "You had me in bed with you and I fell out when I woke up, and I'm wearing new clothes! You changed them yourself didn't you? Didn't you!"

Again he stared blankly at me. "You wish. I don't go around raping just anybody, and if I had raped you, I would have marked you with a three right in the corner of your eye. Take a look in the mirror; I assure you, there's no three."

I wanted to whip that smug, amused smirk off his face, but my own curiosity got the better of me. I stalked over to the mirror to scrutinize my appearance, but when finished, found nothing.

I turned on him and glared childishly. "Well maybe you didn't rape me, but you most certainly changed my clothing."

"You got me there, but you have to admit that that nightgown looks ravishing on you. I have excellent taste in women's clothing." The way he eyed me with those reddish brown portals to hell made me fear for my life and innocence and caused chills to run down my spine.

"T-that's quite un-gentlemanly of you." A pathetic insult, but the best I could think of at that moment.

"I haven't been a gentleman since…ever." He got out of bed and approached me. I backed away. "Come now Thorn, we have much to talk about. Like…have you ever made love to someone on a table?" With a snap of his fingers, a long banquet table appeared out of nowhere.

This made me back away from him even further. "Stay away from me. When my sister and father find out what you've done—"

"—Your father and sister pose no threat to me. Hao takes over Lucifer's territory when he comes down here for his 'annual visit'; the Hot Springs District stays totally under my control. Hao says he has no use for my harlots. As for your sister, sure she was a powerful witch in another life, but she too doesn't scare me. Interest and intrigue me, yes, but scare me? No. I bet she didn't tell you the whole story of her past life. She was quite the beautiful and powerful thing. I wanted her for myself, so I arranged for her death. The villagers found out her little secrets, and she was burned at the stake. Too bad her soul didn't come to me in hell when she died. She went to limbo to await her next incarnation. And then in her next life, the life in which she was your sister, then I got her. I—"

"—Would you stop monologing? It's rather annoying." I sighed in an extremely bored fashion and sat back down on the bed.

"Fine. Back to our little rendezvous." He disappeared. Simply there one minute and then gone the next. I gasped, now extremely nervous, weary of when and where he would appear next. Two hands clamped down on my shoulders from behind and I screamed. "A girl's first time should be on a bed after all, and the man should treat her like a princess, but we have little to no time for that, so let's just get right down to the fun part."

"NO! Leave me aloooooone!" I kicked and screamed and hit at him as he forced me down on the bed. I tried to get away, but like everyone else in my life, he was stronger than me. "HELP! SOMEBODY! HELP ME!"

"You're in a whorehouse. No one's coming just because you're screaming." He laughed and smirked as I cried and screamed. I struggled, but nothing seemed to help.

"Damien. Stop it."

He did stop. He stopped and looked to the doorway at the redheaded woman standing there. "Hello Adella. Can I help you with something?"

"Cut the crap Dame. Lucy is counting on us, and you're not sticking to the plan." The beautiful woman stepped forward into the room, standing to the side of the bed, in front of the TV. "Do you know the hell he's putting himself through for this to work? You're destroying all the hard work he's done up until this point; how could you do that to your own little brother?"

"Rather easily." The Devil snorted indignantly. "Who cares about his stupid plan?" And then he went back to undressing me. I squealed in terror and resumed kicking and screaming.

"**_I_** care."

He paused again at hearing her.

"You really are despicable, you know that. I can't for the life of me figure out why I love you! Well it doesn't matter. My sentence is only for a hundred years more, and then I'll be off to Heaven where I'll never have to see or deal with you ever again." Adella seemed to slap him with her words.

I could see it on his face as he tried to explain. "Do you know how long it's been since I've had a virgin?"

"A week. Deal with it." Her tone had a vicious, ruthless edge to it.

"That's what I'm doing, now get out." I cried even harder as he started removing his own clothing.

"Damien!" Adella rushed him, pushing him off of me.

I fell to the floor with a thud and scurried to put my clothing back on.

"Damn you!" Diablo growled at the woman, giving her a glare as sharp as daggers, as he grabbed me by the wrist, gripping so hard I feared he'd break it.

"I'll never forgive you if you rape this poor girl." Adella warned. "Take me instead."

He didn't even consider her for a second. "And why would I do that?"

"You said that you loved me!" She cried bitterly.

"I do, and what of it?" He shrugged, tightening his hold on me.

"I'm beginning to think that you don't even know what that means." She dropped her gaze and walked toward the door.

Diablo's death glare dropped along with Adella's eyes, and his iron grip loosened considerably. "Maybe I don't. But then, if not love, what's this feeling I have for you?"

"Please let her go. I'll make a deal with you; if you let her go and go along with Lucifer's plan exactly as he said, then I'll be yours forever. I won't leave for Heaven at the end of my sentence." Adella stood in tears as she gripped the doorway, her knuckles turning white.

Damien released me and walked slowly over to Adella, encircling his arms around her waist and kissing her delicately on the side of her neck. "If it means that much to you, let's get this plan of my brother's underway. I'm sorry."

A small smile lit the woman's face. "It's okay. I wasn't planning on leaving for Heaven anyway even after my sentence ran out. I couldn't stand the thought of leaving the man I love even if he is an evil bastard."

The demon smiled and flirted back. "I couldn't stand it if you left either, but hey, watch it. I may be an evil bastard, but I'm still king down here, so don't tell that to my face." He kissed her on the tip of the nose and redirected his gaze toward me.

I gasped and shrunk away in fear, cowering in the corner. Adella walked over and hugged me. "I'm so sorry about him. He may come across as a perverted, evil monster, but he does have his redeeming qualities. He won't hurt you anymore, so there's nothing to worry about. He's harmless, really."

I nodded, but her words really didn't have much of an effect on me. As far as I could see, there was nothing redeeming about that beast, and I didn't want to be in the same room as him for any longer than necessary.

Damien snapped his fingers and all at once the bed was gone, and was replaced by a couch in front of the television screen. The demon sat down on one side of it, and Adella sat next to him. She motioned for me to use the seat next to her. I hesitated for a moment, but decided to trust her. She reminded me a lot of my older sister.

"Okay, down to business." The lust-filled look Damien had been giving me before was now entirely gone from his eyes. "What's the last thing you remember before you met me?"

I thought back and tried to remember. "I remember the darkness and the pain, and then you came. I can't remember much before that."

"Try harder." Adella urged with a smile. "Think back before the darkness."

I closed my eyes and tried to picture it to remember all that had happened. "Well… There were lots of people screaming. A group of children shrieking and calling for their mother. Some people shouting for help and for someone to call 911. Someone was yelling my name over and over again. I think it might have been my father. Everything is such a blur." I stopped, getting a headache.

"Come on Thorn, you have to remember this for yourself or else we can't help you." The redhead clasped my hand and coached. "What happened before that?"

"I…I don't know."

"Yes you do." Damien joined the encouraging. "Now think hard. It's in there somewhere, you just have a bunch of cobwebs and dust covering it."

"I…I got a letter from my boyfriend! He wanted to meet with me about…something…. He was going to meet me in front of some restaurant, and we were going to have lunch, but…I don't know…he never came, and then some pipes or something fell off the back of a truck parked in front of the restaurant. That's when the yelling and the screaming started." I looked to them as if asking 'Is that enough?'

"There's one more thing you're forgetting; now, what is it?" Damien looked expectantly in my direction. "I'll give you a hint: it's the reason you're here. Where were you and what were you doing when the pipes fell."

I tried to remember, but nothing came to me. I closed my eyes and concentrated once again. "I suppose I was screaming with everyone else."

"And?" I was getting closer. I could tell by the cat-like grin on the devil's face.

All at once it came back to me in a bright burst of light. All my memories came flooding back.

_There I was out front of The Moon and Stars Café and Bakery, and there was the truck with the pipes chained on the back. I watched it pull up, and I waved to my Uncle Ryu as he got out of the truck and walked inside to talk with the manager of the café. He smiled and waved back. I was waiting for Akira to come and eat lunch with me so we could talk about him being Lian. I had been waiting for fifteen minutes for that boy to show, but he still wasn't there yet._

_My father walked by, but I didn't notice him. I was too busy staring at my watch. "Hey Thorn. What are you doing here?"_

_I jumped, but then smiled when I realized it was my father. "Oh hey Dad. I'm waiting for Akira to get here, so we can have lunch together. He's running a bit late though. What about you?"_

"_Akira? Really?" He looked completely scandalized. "I thought the two of you hated each other. Have you made a treaty or something?"_

"_Actually, we're sitting down and negotiating today. Apparently we've been dating for the past couple months, you see at the other party I met this guy named Lian, but we didn't see each other's faces because of the masks, and we sort of fell in love, but gave each other pseudonyms for some weird reason, and it turns out that I've been dating Akira. So we're sorting it all out today." And then I started rambling in some dreamy babble. "I bet he's going to propose when we're done talking! Oh, wouldn't that be so romantic! It'll be just perfect! Of course Akira does have some annoying personality flaws, but I can always fix that when we're married, right?"_

_Hao sighed and put a hand on my shoulder. "Sweetheart, that never works in real life. You can't change men. They'll always be jerks and perverts and…well, men. There's nothing you can do to change that."_

"_But you changed for Ivy." I pointed out._

_He scrunched his nose at me and denied everything. "Did not. Not that much. Sure I gave up drinking and being suicidal, but that's not that much of a change. It's not like I was too attached to either of those things anyway."_

_I rolled my eyes and shook my head. He was too stubborn to argue with. "So what were you doing here again?"_

"_Meeting I—Valerie for lunch." He smiled lightly. "That reminds me… you and she have to have a serious talk later about Ivy. There have been some secrets kept from you, and it's time you learned the truth."_

_I nodded having no idea what he was talking about._

"_Goodbye Thorn." He hugged me and smiled. "I'll see you later okay sweetie?" With a kiss to my forehead he was gone inside to wait for his own date._

_I rolled my eyes and smiled again at his treating me like a little girl. I sighed and shrugged, realizing that I would never grow up in his eyes._

_I heard a noise from behind me. I couldn't exactly describe it. It was a soft rumbling sound, a sort of grinding sound, chains clinking and the low growl of things falling. It was the sound of death._

_I had barely turned around when I saw them falling. The pipes. I screamed, but didn't feel a thing. It happened too fast to feel anything. I tried to dive out of the way under the truck, but a pipe caught my legs and I blacked out from the pain of my crushed lower body._

"I'm dead." It came out as barely a whisper. "Oh my gosh…" I was in shock, but then I realized something else, "AND I'M IN HELL!" My mind raced, trying to think of reasons, excuses. "What did I do wrong? Oh my gosh, oh my gosh…. I'm going to be tortured for all eternity, aren't I? My cousin! I'm here for incest! I'm sorry; I'm sorry! Please let me go to Heaven! I'll never do it again! Never ever!" I was too preoccupied with my spazzing out that I didn't see the weird looks Damien and Adella were giving me.

Adella cautiously reached out a hand and placed it on my shoulder. "Umm…you're not dead yet."

"What?" I blinked.

Damien explained. "Your soul is detached from your body because I detached it, not because you're dead. You're currently in a state of suspended animation. That reminds me, Adella get up there and make sure the body is doing okay. Also, you can tell Lucifer that the plan is going more or less, smoothly."

"Right." Adella nodded and got up to leave. "Just make sure you keep your paws off the girl."

"Will do." Damien gave the nod and Adella left. "I guess I have some explaining to do?"

I nodded and scooted further away from him on the couch.

"All right then. We're keeping your body on Earth alive. You should have died on the way to the hospital, but you didn't because we didn't let you. I'm doing this because it's according to my little brother Lucifer's plan. He's the one responsible for this whole thing. He's been planning for what seems like forever. He's then one who melted those chains that were holding back the pipes. He's the one who ordered that they be brought there in the first place. Maybe it would make more sense if I had Lucy explain it for himself." Damien snapped his fingers and a remote appeared out of nowhere. He turned on the TV and flipped through a couple channels until he found the one he was searching for. On the screen there was a hospital room filled with people I recognized. They were all gathered around my brother's boyfriend as he sat dejectedly in an armchair. "This screen might not be as fancy and big as the one up in Heaven, but it does its job."

_33_

"All right demon, talk." I softly nudged Lucifer with my knee.

"I told you there's no point. Hoshi hates me, so what do I care if you all think I murdered Thorn for no reason? What do I care if you all think I'm evil? I don't care what you think; I don't love _you._" The bitter demon seemed to shrink even further into his self-induced depression.

"Look you, I don't care if you care what we think or not, tell me why you did this to my daughter, damn it!" I seized him by the collar of his shirt, expecting him to react at least somewhat. He was limp in my grasp, like a corpse. I set him down back in his chair. "That daughter of mine…she has you completely and totally whipped, doesn't she?" He nodded. "All right then. If you have a good reason for doing this to Thorn, tell us now, and I'll talk to Hoshi for you. You said you were so sure that she would understand once you explained, so why don't you explain it to us, and Ivy or I can go and explain to Hoshi." He didn't react at all. "But then maybe I'm trusting you too much by giving you the benefit of the doubt."

"Fine. I'll tell you everything." Lucifer's words were hollow, and his voice was dripping in monotone. "There's no need for you to talk to Hoshi for me, it's over, and I'm going back home. I do admit that you deserve an explanation, so I'll give that to you, but then I'm out of here.

"You know that I used to have a huge crush on Ivy. I did everything I could think of to get her in bed with me. I was a selfish, perverted little kid in puppy love. I didn't really even truly understand the real meaning of love because I had never been shown love before in my life. Since I had such horrible examples, my brother to name one, you can only imagine how twisted my definition of love was. Ivy refused me over and over and over again. She was making a new body for herself so she could go back to Hao and her children. I offered her a new body in exchange for her soul, but she never took the bait. One day I just gave up. I instead decided that if she wasn't going to be happy with me, she deserved to be happy with Hao, so I approached Anna about getting Hao and Ivy back together.

"We kept up our talks for a few years, making plans and remaking plans. I let her think that she was in charge and that the entire thing had been her idea from the start. We spent years constructing the foolproof plan, and a few months ago, we set it into action. One day, Ivy's birthday, she was mixing some chemicals in the lab, and they unexpectedly completely altered her appearance. I was the one who caused her appearance to change, not those chemicals. However, later, when she was mixing some chemicals again and they exploded, the chemicals mixed with my magic to change her hair and eyes different colors. An unfortunate side effect. Anyway, I didn't want Ivy and Hao to jump back into a relationship because then Ivy would never finish her body because Hao would distract her from her work, and it would be a big, fat, sloppy mess, so I created Valerie. Hao wouldn't recognize Ivy now that she looked so different, and with the help of an accomplice of mine, I planted thoughts in Ivy's head that she had to hide her true identity from Hao."

A little pixie appeared, as if, out of nowhere, and sat on Lucifer's shoulder. "This is my accomplice, Marie. She's half imp, half sprite. Her parents' tribes were at war, and so they intermarried. Marie is the result. We've been friends since childhood, and she was more than happy to do a couple favors for me. She has the powers of both the imps and the sprites. She bends people's wills and plants ideas in their heads. I'm sure she can do much more, but those two are basically what she did for my plans."

Marie nodded and smiled devilishly at all gathered in the room. She had bright red wings that glimmered as if they were covered in glitter, and a floor-length red and black dress with sparkles to match. She was really quite a lovely little woman with olive skin, henna-colored hair down to her shoulders, and dark brown eyes. The treacherous little thing, no bigger than a doll, flew around the room and landed on Thorn's pillow. She stroked my daughter's hair and gazed mournfully down at the girl.

Lucifer continued. "So now that Anna and I had a plan to get Hao and Ivy back together slowly, but surely, we had to decide how to get them to meet again. We thought for a while, but then the answer was apparent: Hao and Ivy's daughters. Hao seemed more protective of the younger one, so we chose that one to lure out with the help of Marie. Thorn met Hana, and got hurt, and so was brought home right to Ivy. Hao came to pick up Thorn and met Valerie.

"And you all know what happened at the Masquerade. Valerie and Hao met again, and Lian met Thorn. And I unexpectedly developed a huge crush on Thorn to replace my huge crush on Ivy. It didn't last long though, and like my first crush, the one on Ivy, I decided that Thorn would be happier with Akira who was the Lian guy she met at the ball, and so I developed yet another plan: one to get Akira and Thorn together. I decided that I might need help with this one, so I had Marie plant the idea to get Thorn and Akira together in Hana's head. Hana turned to his cousin for help with his plan, and Hoshi entered into my schemes.

"I felt a strange attraction to her, but I ignored it and continued on in my plots, now leading Anna and Hana along according to my will. Ivy and Hao seemed to be progressing nicely in their relationship, and I knew that they would eventually straighten out the whole Valerie business and everything would work out fine in the end, but Lian and Thorn were a different story. Akira and Thorn hated each other, but Thorn and Lian couldn't be more in love. This was a major potential problem. I disguised myself as a cat and went to the Onsen to spy on Thorn and Akira and gather information, and more or less figure out a way to get Thorn and Akira together. Then, if you remember, that fight broke out. Thorn and Akira went after each other and Akira insulted Hoshi, and I attacked Akira, and everyone got hurt.

"And that's when I came up with my brilliant scheme to get Thorn and Akira together without a whole lot of drama. I would need a lot of help from a lot of people, but I was sure I could pull it off. I wanted to attempt something like what the angels did with Ivy during Codename I,SR, so I made plans to kill Thorn. I had almost everything sorted out, how to kill her, how to lure her there, and I was sure I could find someone willing to carry out the assassination, but then, up in the makeshift infirmary after the fight, Hoshi approached me and asked for a favor. It was the most unusual thing too. She wanted me to fix the auditions for the school musical. Thorn probably would have gotten the leading role anyway, but still Hoshi wanted me to fix the cast for the entire production by bending the free will of the people in charge of casting. If I did that for her, she would owe me one favor. She closed off pretty much all the loopholes too so that I couldn't get a hold of her soul or things of the like. So I agreed to her terms. I had found my murderer. I was going to have Hoshi kill her sister. I know my original goal was to avoid as much drama as possible while getting Akira and Thorn together, but sometimes these things can't be helped, and drama is necessary.

"I felt horrible though. Guilty. The look on Hoshi's face when I told her what I was going to have her do…it haunted me. I felt so bad about it. But I couldn't do anything now that the deal was made. Up until that point, I had been using Marie to mess with other people's free will and thoughts, but then I decided that I wanted to learn to do it on my own, so I went to visit my brother, the real Devil, Damien, or as he likes to call himself, Diablo. I asked him about how to control free will, and he gave me my own little epic adventure to go on. I did as he said and gained immense powers. Then I visited Hoshi, and Ivy and Hao walked in on her trying to seduce me out of the deal we had made. I decided then that I would kill Thorn myself. I couldn't make Hoshi do it. I was slowly, but surely falling head over heals in love with her. _Real_ love, not like the crushes I had had on Ivy and Thorn up until then. I held up my end of the deal and fixed the auditions the way Hoshi had said except I added myself into the cast list because I had a strong desire to be near Hoshi.

"I visited Hoshi one morning because I just wanted to be with her, and while I was there, she asked for another favor. This one scared me. She asked me to pretend to rape Thorn so that Akira could rescue her."

"YOU BASTARD!" Akira shot up from his seat and lunged at Lucifer. "You were the one that tried to rape her! I shot you! You should be dead!"

"I wish I were dead!" Lucifer shouted back. "I wish you would have killed me then, but you didn't! That brings up another point; do you normally carry a gun around with you? Because if you do, you really are a danger to society."

Akira pulled out his gun and held it to Lucifer's chest. "You're one to talk! Who's the danger to society!"

Lucifer sighed and looked down tiredly at the gun. "Look, do us both a favor and shoot. I'll say hello to your little sister for you if I ever visit Heaven."

Akira lowered his gun and put it back where it had been hidden. "How did you know about my sister, Jade?"

"I get a list of everyone who dies. Her name was on the list yesterday, so I knew she was going to die this morning. All I can say is: look on the bright side; she's no longer suffering from Leukemia is she? Look, I know you've been here all day, first mourning the loss of your baby sister, and then mourning over your girlfriend, and I'm sorry, but just sit down and let me explain." Remarkably Akira did as Lucifer said, and Lucifer went back to his story.

"And I did as Hoshi said and pretended to rape Thorn so that Akira could rescue her, but it turns out that Akira had a gun, and so he shot me twelve times. The bullets went in pretty deep, and didn't allow my wounds to close and heal, so I was in deep trouble. I poofed up to Hoshi's room, and she slipped me some laughing gas so that it wouldn't hurt as she pulled out the bullets." Lucifer paused awkwardly.

Lyserg tapped his foot impatiently. "Come on demon, don't leave out any details, this is all going on file."

This really seemed to disturb Lucifer, but he continued anyway. "Okay…if you're sure you want to hear this. Well…um…we sort of, kind of…confessed our undying love for each other and had sex..." He paused and raised an eyebrow at Lyserg who had been scribbling furiously in a notebook the entire time. Lyserg looked up at Lucifer, signaling for the devil to continue. Lucifer looked slightly uncomfortable under the detective's gaze. "…a couple times…" Lyserg resumed writing feverishly to keep up as Lucifer talked. "…and then every night after that…." The detective waited for the demon to continue the story. "Why on earth are you writing this down?"

Lyserg kept writing. "Because. It has to go in the report." Apparently the green-haired Englishman was writing down everything he said as well.

Lucifer sighed and looked rather annoyed. "So I guess you want step by step everything we did?"

"It would be preferable." Lyserg continued to write.

"No. NO. NO!" This was more than enough for me. "I do NOT want to hear what all _that_ has been doing with my daughter, so Lucy skip ahead to what happened next."

Lucifer looked extremely relieved. "Oh good. Thanks. Um…after that…. Oh! That was just about the time when I talked to Hao about Valerie not telling him about her true identity yet. So I gave Hao that engagement ring that Ivy is wearing right now and told him to propose to Valerie so that Ivy would be jealous and confess. Actually, I had another reason to give that ring to Hao to give to Ivy. Inside the eyes of the phoenix is a tracker. If you look on the side of Thorn's neck, there's a small mark in the shape of a phoenix. That's a tracker too. I also gave a phoenix necklace to Hoshi, and there's a tracker in that one's eyes as well. At the party, Lian confessed that he was really Akira to Thorn, and Hao proposed to Valerie, and Ivy and Hao got back together.

"This morning I left early to talk to my brother about his part in my plan. I left a note for Thorn under her door saying to meet Akira out in front of The Moon and Stars Café and Bakery. I signed it from Akira, so of course she came and waited outside. By the time I got back, it was almost time to murder Thorn. As for how I would kill her, a Mr. Louis C. Fur had ordered a truck filled with cement pipes to be delivered in front of the café at the exact time that Thorn would be waiting outside. Before I headed over to kill Thorn, I stopped by Ivy's lab.

"Did anyone else notice she was dying again? The shell she's in now is deteriorating. She has, perhaps—oh let's make it a good number—thirty-three minutes left to live before her body melts away and she dies. I stopped by Ivy's lab and caused a huge fire and several explosions. The fire and explosions were a cover for what I was really doing. I made a new, fully functioning body, and returned Ivy to her original appearance.

"Then it was off to Moon and Stars to melt the chains on the pipes and kill Thorn. As soon as the pipes fell I was out of there, and off to the park to find Hoshi. When I got there, she got the phone call about Thorn, and I drove her here to the hospital. You know what happened after that." Lucifer sighed as he finished, completely heart broken.

"How was killing Thorn suppose to get us together!" Akira lashed out again at the depressed demon-boy.

"If you haven't noticed, she's not dead yet." A soft feminine voice entered the room. It was the nurse from before. We all stopped and stared at her. "Thorn should have died on the way to the hospital, but she didn't. Did you stop to wonder why?" The redhead walked over to Thorn's bedside and put a hand to my daughter's forehead.

Lucifer continued for the nurse. "My brother Damien is keeping her alive so that we can have this conversation. Her soul isn't in her body, it's with Damien down in hell, and if things are going completely according to plan, she's watching us right now. Adella?"

The nurse nodded and smiled. "We had a few minor difficulties to begin with, but after that everything went according to plan."

Akira glared at the woman in white. "You're involved in this!"

The redhead nodded again. "Yes, of course. How rude of me not to introduce myself. I am Adella, Damien's consort, and Book Keeper of the Hot Springs District."

"I don't give a damn who you are, what is my girlfriend's soul doing in Hell with the Devil's brother?" Akira's volatile temper exploded once again.

Lucifer shrugged Akira's rashness off. "Watching, seeing how much you love her, seeing that you're not a completely horrible, awful, terrible guy. That was the point of this."

"How is that helping us? I can't marry her if she's dead!" Akira argued.

"But she's not dead." Adella reminded.

Lucifer tried to explain. "Ivy, that body I created this morning was not for you. It was for Thorn. If you choose to use that body to save yourself, Thorn dies. It's your decision."

I looked at my wife. She had a blank face, and a far-off look in her eyes. She wanted to stay, to live, to be with me and our children, but she couldn't sacrifice the happiness of someone else for her own. She couldn't let Thorn die when she was the only one able to save her.

"Tell me Lucifer," Her lips moved slowly, her voice labored. "if I give up this body for Thorn, are you saying that we could transfer her soul into the fully-functioning body, and she would live like a normal shaman, and live as long as a normal shaman would?" Ivy was very careful in her decision.

"Yes and No. She'd be just like any normal shaman yes, but new bodies can't live on their own. Their lives are bonded to another human or shaman being. If you were to use the new body, Ivy, you would choose to bond yourself to your sister or Hao or someone around your same age, and then when—say—Hao died, you would die with him. If you gave the body to Thorn, you might bond her to Akira or Hoshi, and when they die, she dies too. Other than that, she'd be just like any other girl her age. She'll also be quite weak the first few days, but she'll get her strength back and be able to go home from the hospital soon enough. What do you say Ivy? It's your choice." Lucifer seemed to be holding his breath waiting for my wife's final decision. I was amazed to find that I too was holding my breath with him.

"Hao, could you teleport the body here?" She looked up at me with salty liquid draining from her eyes.

It was then that I knew for certain what she had chosen. I nodded and started to cry too. I held Ivy tight as I teleported the body in onto an empty stretcher.

"Give the body to Thorn." She buried her face in my chest and I held her tightly to me. I was losing her yet again.

"Done. Damien, send her up and into the new body." Lucy smiled half-heartedly at his plan coming to a close.

_33_

"You heard him. You get to go back. So I guess this is goodbye. It was nice meeting you Thorn." Damien switched the TV off and got up from the couch. He looked at me and raised an eyebrow. "What's the matter?"

I must have had a strange look of some kind on my face, or maybe it was that I had no look on my face at all, but he seemed to sense my inward turmoil. "Valerie is my mother…Ivy…and Akira loves me…I knew that but…his poor little sister…Jade…I only met her once, but I was very fond of her…she's dead…so young, but…dead. It's all so much to take in, all the plans and plots and everything. I've been moved around and manipulated like a chess piece, and then you want me to just get up off of this couch like nothing happened and go back to living? I just need a minute."

"You'll have several days. You won't be strong enough to get out of that hospital bed for at least a week, and there's nothing much to do in the hospital except sit and think. It's time for you to go home, Thorn." He seemed like a completely different person. His voice was so soft, and he seemed so kind. Was this the 'redeeming quality' Adella had spoken of? He placed a small box in my hand and said, "Give this to my little brother. He left it down here. Goodbye." He kissed me on the forehead and the whole world was again swallowed in shadows.

And then there was light. It was so bright and blinding that I couldn't open my eyes at first. Everything was white. Voices mumbled next to my ear. I could hear them all around talking at once. Talking about me. I couldn't make out the words, but the tone was anxious and worried. I was content to lie there and listen to the hum of their mixed voices as they buzzed in my ears.

Then the words and voices became discernable from each other. There was my father, and his wife, and then my uncle and cousin, and then my friends. My aunt joined in soon followed by the annoying detective.

I opened my eyes and it all stopped. They were standing around me in a circle, hardly giving me any breathing room. Adella forced them all back to give me some space. I tried to sit up, but my body was numb. I took in all the faces surrounding me and smiled. I tried to sit up again, this time having more luck.

"Thorn?" Akira looked uncertainly at me.

"Yes?" I smiled sweetly.

"I'm so sorry." He reached out uncertainly at first, and stroked my cheek lovingly. "I shouldn't have lied to you, and—"

"—Please. Don't start that." I leaned forward and lightly placed a butterfly kiss on his lips. "I forgive you. I can only hope that you forgive me for being so closed-minded. I'm the one who should be sorry."

He kissed me fully on the lips, much more heatedly than I had kissed him. "There's nothing to forgive."

Lucifer smiled and got up to leave, but Lyserg stood in his way. "You're coming with me demon. You're being charged with first degree murder."

My father set a hand on the detective's shoulder, and smiled mock-sweetly. "Leave him alone, Lyserg; he's done nothing wrong. Thorn is still alive and unharmed, so we're not pressing any charges. There's been no crime done here, so you don't have anything to charge anyone for."

The green-haired detective nodded and grudgingly left. Lucifer nodded his thanks to my father, and Hao went back to comforting Ivy.

Lucifer mumbled softly under his breath. "Well, this has been an interesting game. My pawns, Thorn and Akira are finally together. My rooks Anna and Hana worked nicely throughout the game. They remained particularly clueless, only seeing one side of the story the entire time, but that's okay. Rooks can only go in one direction each time they're moved, so I suppose it's natural. My knights were predictable, yet not at the same time ; always moving in an L shape, but so many different ways to move. Hao and Yoh's choices were predictable, but there were so many moves each could have made. My bishops, Damien and Adella, worked well together. There were only two ways they could have moved, with me or against me, and they never directly helped, but instead assisted me in a round about, diagonal, way. Ivy, my queen, the poor thing was manipulated horribly, but it was essential for the win. She was the second most important piece on my board. Without Ivy, everything would have failed. But I fear that I lost the game anyway. I lost my king, the only one I wanted to protect, the only truly important, deciding piece. I've lost Hoshi, and so I've lost the game. It's finally over, and that's checkmate. I lose. I was the grand orchestrater of this whole game. I was the one secretly moving all the pieces, but I can't help but wonder, was I my own pawn as well? It no longer matters. The game is finished, and I've lost. Hoshi…" He walked towards the door, and looked about ready to leave.

"Lucifer! Wait!" I called after him. The forlorn demon paused and looked quizzically at me. "Thank you for everything." I held out the box that Damien had given me. "Your brother said that you left this by accident down there, and he told me to give this to you."

He gaped, in awe of the small box. And then he smiled. A real smile shone through his depression. He took the box and put it in his pocket. "No, Thorn, thank you." He walked over to my mother, and smiled. "Try and be happy Ivy." She was about to say something, probably along the lines of 'How can I be happy? I'm dying!', but Lucifer took her lips in a heartfelt kiss.

Everyone gaped at the scene. We were all too dumbstruck to move, but that didn't mean my father couldn't yell. "LUCIFER!"

"Goodbye." Lucifer pulled out a small knife and stabbed my mother in the stomach. Ivy gave a sharp cry of pain, and Lucifer was gone along with Adella and Marie. They all simply vanished.

"Ivy!" My father rushed to my mother's side as she pulled out the knife, grimacing in pain.

"I'm fine. That bastard stabbed me! AND he kissed me!" She inspected the wound, glaring down at it. "Oh great, look I'm bleeding all over the place. Great." She paused and studied the blood on her fingers. "I'm bleeding…" It was a ghost of a whisper, and her eyes went wide with realization. A huge smile danced across her face. "Hao, I'm bleeding!"

He stared dumbly at her "You're…Oh my god."

She jumped into his arms and he swung her around, the both of them laughing their heads off and grinning like a pair of idiots. "I'm bleeding! After almost seventeen years! I'm bleeding!" But then fear entered her eyes. "Oh my god, I'm bleeding! OOWW! Put me down! Put me down! Ow! Ow! OWWW! I'm bleeding! Pain, suffering, agony! Complete bliss after sixteen years of nothing, but ooooooowwwwww; it hurts! Get a doctor before I bleed to death!"

I shook my head and laughed as the doctors bandaged her up and put her in the bed next to mine. She gazed happily, like a child with a new toy, up at the monitor that measured her heartbeat. "Isn't it beautiful?" She commented every once in awhile.

Hao sat next to her on the bed and nodded. "You're beautiful." They'd laugh and kiss and hold each other and talk and talk and laugh. Even I had to admit, though grudgingly, that they were the perfect couple, made for each other.

The others left, so it was only Hao, Ivy, Akira, and I in the room. Hao and Ivy were preoccupied with each other, so Akira and I had almost complete privacy.

"So you're really back here for good?" Akira took his shoes off and lay in the bed right next to me. He played nervously with my hands.

"Yes." I whispered flirtatiously.

"When did you become flirtatious?" He kissed my cheek lightly.

"Today." I rested my head on his chest. "Do you think we'll make it as a couple?" I couldn't help but ask.

He considered it for a moment, and laughed softly. "Look at the two bozos in the bed next to us. Their situation wasn't too different than ours, and look how happy they are. I'm thinking that we'll be fine."

I smiled and laughed with him. "You're probably right. We're fine." But then a thought struck me. "Hey, Aki? Have you seen my sister? I haven't seen Hoshi since I woke up."

He was silent for a minute. "Thorn, Lucifer and Hoshi had…a sort of…falling out when she found out that he was the one responsible for what happened to you. She ran off. I don't know where she went, but she'll be okay. She's one tough chick."

I was glad that he had a high opinion of my sister, but I was worried about Hoshi. "Actually, not really. She's human like the rest of us, maybe more so. She loves Lucifer, and if she thinks he betrayed her, then it will break her heart. I'm really worried about her Akira…"

"Hey, listen, she'll be all right." He was desperate to calm me. "Did you see the look in Lucifer's eyes? He was going to talk to her to get her back. I'm sure of it."

"If you say so." I still wasn't convinced.

He could hear it in my voice. "If you need more proof, what was that box you gave Lucifer?"

I smiled happily and kissed him again. Maybe things would be okay after all. "It was a ring case."

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Thanks To: isa18, Lady Valandario, MaiValentinefan, Touch of the Wind, HAO-Addictive, -BeLLe33-, Andrea Nefisto, DarkPisces33, acho0bl3ssU, yo wuz up, Hannah, thoughtless dreamer, K.K. Tori or none, Ayume Yamashira, and demon thing.

To Hannah: HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY! I hope it was a great one!

PLEASE REVIEW!


	48. To Love Again

Mikau: Well, one more chapter to go. I really hate how I ended this one, but the body part of the chapter was pretty good. I enjoyed typing it.

**_Disclaimer:_** I don't own Shaman King.

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To Love Again

I ran as fast as my feet would carry me. Again everything was a blur, this time because of my cascading tears. My heart was broken, and it was draining out of me in the form of tears. I ran for a while and eventually found myself back in the park sitting on the edge of the small cliff overlooking the lake.

I sobbed to myself for what seemed like hours. 'How could I have been so stupid? He was Damien's BROTHER for crying out loud! You'd think I could take a hint that he was evil just from that alone. He was the Devil! How much more stupid can you get? I was such an idiot, and I paid for it with my sister's life. I let him trick me. I trusted him and he completely used me…. I was a fool…a complete and total fool for him, and he took advantage of me. I dropped my guard and fell in love with him. I was his toy. He played with me, and used me.' I swore right then and there to never love another man ever again. I completely sealed away my heart so that I wouldn't run the risk of getting hurt.

I looked down at the still surface of the murky lake at my tearstained face. I glared at the girl in the water. "You let him kill your sister! It's your fault that Thorn is dead!" And then I made up my mind to end my own life. I didn't want to live any longer with the guilt and sorrow of losing my sister. We were twins. We were born together, we lived together, and we would die together. I stood up and ran to the nearest office building I could find. I ran about a block until I found the perfect building. It was tall, but not too tall, at least 13 stories high.

I walked around back through the alley and climbed the fire escape. No one was on the roof, so I had the place all to myself. I stepped out on the ledge and looked down. The world seemed to start spinning when I realized at what a dizzying height I was.

The wind blew, chilling me. My hair fluttered about me in the breeze like a crimson halo. I brushed it out of my face and looked back down at the pavement. "The last thing on earth I'll ever see." I closed my eyes, spread my arms and got ready to jump.

"BOO!" Someone screamed from right behind me.

"AHH!" I lost my balance and fell.

"Shhh. It's okay; I've got you."

Backwards right into Lucifer's waiting arms. He smiled lovingly at me as he kissed the tip of my nose, taking advantage of my shock.

I soon got over that, and my senses came back to me. "Let go of me you murderer!" I thrashed about in his arms until he was forced to let me down. "You have some nerve, you know, coming after me after I specifically told you I never wanted to see you ever again. And just what do you think you're doing, scaring a person who is standing on the ledge of a roof?"

He smirked and pushed pass me to stand on the ledge himself. "I love you; I couldn't resist _not_ coming after you." He turned away from me and looked out over the town. "What a lovely view."

"What are you doing here?" I grudgingly asked.

He openly laughed at me. "Wow Hoshi, I thought it was pretty obvious that I came here after you. You feeling okay? You're IQ seems to be lacking a few points today."

Blood boiled under my skin. "How dare you! You murdered my sister, you bastard! I'm suffering from grief and guilt from letting you get close to me to get close to Thorn!"

"So you think I used you?" The smile faded from his face, and he stared wistfully off at the horizon.

"Didn't you?" Something in the way he said it gave me goose bumps and made me question what I had thought before.

"I was at first, but only for a day, two at most." He sat down on the ledge and swung his legs around so that he was facing me again. That endearing little smile of his was back upon his face. "Soo…what are you doing all the way up here?"

I turned my back on him, still enraged that he would dare talk to me. "You're the one who's acting stupidly today; I thought it was painfully obvious that I was jumping."

"Phft! You don't have the nerve to go through with it." That was it. I had had enough of him and his mocking and cockiness.

I turned on him. "You know very well that I do, and I will. Move out of the way!" I got up on the edge next to where he was sitting and prepared to jump.

He too got to his feet and stood on the ledge, taking my hand in his and smiling somewhat to himself. "Then let's jump together."

I tore my hand away from his and stared at him incredulously. "What are you, mad? Get your own building to jump off of, this one's mine!" I got down and walked a few feet away, desperate to put some space between us. I held the hand that he had been holding to my chest. My heart was pounding. He was acting as if nothing had happened between us. It was unnerving at its least. "Besides," My voice was soft and unsure. "why would you want to jump anyway?"

"Well if you're jumping, I'm jumping. Living isn't such an appealing idea if you're not there beside me. I'd have no purpose. Besides, I'll follow you anywhere Hoshi; there's no getting rid of me that easily." Neither of us was looking at each other, but I could tell he knew exactly what my face conveyed to the rest of the world, all my fear and doubt, and I could tell he was smiling. That forlorn, ironic little grin of his that I loved.

My heart leapt in my chest, informing me that I hadn't buried the strong feelings I had for him like I thought I had. I turned slowly to watch him walk the length of the ledge, back and forth like a skillful tightrope walker. He smiled to himself again, looked back at me, and chuckled. "Did you know I'm terrified of heights?" He looked away, back down to the concrete below. "Scared stiff." He laughed bitterly at his own fear and kept walking back and forth.

After awhile of watching I found my voice. "Then what on earth are you doing up here walking back and forth along the edge of a roof thirteen stories up?" I glared at him, frustrated with his clear stupidity.

He stopped pacing and turned to face me still standing on the ledge. "I'm trying to think of what I could say to make you take me back." And he smiled.

With the sun behind him, surrounding him in a glowing light, it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. I had forgotten how handsome he was. I could just stare at him forever. I blushed and turned away.

"Of course, I'm no Casanova,"

'Yeah, that's your brother's job.'

"So this is proving to be a little difficult." He sat back down on the ledge, looking out at the city.

I too took my respective position standing on the ledge, ready to jump whenever the opportunity arose. "Tell me you love me." I barely whispered, so just he could hear.

"I lov—"

"—Only say it if you mean it, truly, from the heart." I emotionlessly cut him off.

"I love you, Hoshi." He said it so confidently.

"Now look me in the eye and tell me you weren't using me." I looked back at him stoically.

He stood, took me in his arms, and leaned in close so that our lips barely brushed each other. "I didn't want to hurt you." He slowly pressed our lips together. I forced myself not to kiss him back.

I pulled away. 'He's so…warm.' Before when I had kissed him, he felt like hot coals and sweet acid burning away at me slowly, but now I got more of an electric jolt when our lips met. He had been warm before, but now this was a different kind of warmth.

He whispered huskily, in a low voice and tone that scared me. It was as if we had never been lovers at all, and he was that awful devil again that I had first made a deal with. "I didn't want to resort to this, but I think I know what I have to do now."

I stepped back.

And he followed me. "We had a deal Hoshi, and you never repaid the favor you owed me."

This…thing…was not my Lucifer, but a demon using his form to torture and torment me. "Stay back! I'll jump!" I warned.

"Jump if you want." His uncaring tone cut my heart into shreds. "It won't do any good. You've tried this before with that knife; you know you can't die as long as you still are indebted to me."

"N-no…"

"Yes, and so in order to repay me, I'm asking you to—"

"—You use me, murder my sister, and then you expect me to do you a favor! Go to hell!" Anger unexpectedly flared up inside of me.

"You didn't let me finish Hosh." His voice was soft and loving again. His constant mood swings were puzzling me. "I want you to forgive me."

This confused me above all else he had already done. He looked at me expectantly. "Why are you looking at me like that? Like you expect an answer? Both you and I know perfectly well that if you want me to forgive you, then I have to. I have no choice." I turned my back to him and crossed my arms angrily.

"Hoshi, please don't be angry with me. I love you; I can't stand having you angry with me." His voice was pleading like it was before when he more or less asked for my forgiveness. It tugged at my heart.

'This must be his power over me, making me pity him and reminding me how much I still love him. I'm actually starting to forgive him. I can't stay mad forever. I love him. Even after all he's done to me…I still love him.' "I'm not angry, I'm just so confused…" I turned again to face him on the ledge, putting a hand to my head, hoping it would relieve some of the pain of the pounding headache that this was giving me. "I can't deny that I'm still hopelessly in love with you, and I do forgive you."

He looked back at the skyline, casually stuffing his hands in his pockets. "Do you really forgive me, or is it because of the spell I have on you?"

"I don't know if it's the spell or not, but something inside me says I have to forgive you because whatever you did, you had your reasons. I don't know if it's of my own free will or not, but I'm not mad at you like I was before when I ran from the hospital." I sat down on the ledge, my back to the city street with its cars and pavement.

"Hoshi," He got down and leaned against the lip of the roof, facing me. He laughed to himself and smiled. "there is no spell."

I stared blankly at him. "What?"

"You heard me. There is no spell on you. There never was. You forgave me because you wanted to." He kept smiling, and I kept staring.

"I'm afraid I don't understand…" I lifted an eyebrow daintily.

"The terms of our first deal were that I would do a favor for you, and then you would do a favor for me. I broke our contract first, so you have no obligation to follow through on your half. The contract is completely null and void." He explained with an impish grin.

I tried to follow, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't understand. "What do you mean? How?"

"The moment I cast myself, the deal was off. I didn't stick strictly to your list of people to cast, so after that, you were completely free."

It was a good thing that I was sitting down, or else I probably would have fallen over. "What…what does this mean for me? You? My sister?"

"Hoshi, Thorn's alive and well. No scars, no real pain. I've been planning this whole thing from the beginning. The day we met in the graveyard, do you remember?" I gave a nod for him to continue. "That day I told you about a complicated chess match that was going on under your very nose. I've been the one secretly orchestrating this entire plot in order to get Hao and Ivy, and Thorn and Akira together. With a little help from my brother and friends, it worked. Hao and Ivy are getting remarried, and Thorn and Akira are dating. No one's been hurt, and everything is going to be fine."

Again I tried to process what he was telling me, and this time some of it got through. Slowly, but through nonetheless. "My sister is alive?" He nodded, and I burst into tears. He took me in his arms and I cried on his shoulder. "Thank god. I thought you didn't love me, and that I was going to lose my sister and—Oh my god, Lucifer!"

I sobbed and sobbed and he gladly held me. "Hoshi?" He whispered softly, gently into my ear.

"Yes?" I smiled and whispered back, still resting my head on his shoulder with my eyes closed.

"Will you marry me?"

I opened my eyes slowly and looked up at him. "W-what?"

He smiled that charismatic grin of his and took a ring case from his pocket, opening it to reveal a pentagram of topaz embedded in a field of sapphire. It was gorgeous. All I could do was stare and mutter, "Oh my god…" over and over again, smiling like an idiot.

Lucifer raised an eyebrow curiously at me. "Is that a 'yes' or a 'no'?"

"Yes." I replied breathlessly, throwing my arms around his neck and passionately kissing him.

He smiled and happily slipped the ring onto my finger. "I love you." He kissed my forehead. "It looks magnificent on you; I knew it would."

"It's beautiful…" I muttered, holding my hand up to the light and admiring it as it glittered. A devastating thought hit me. "I'm only sixteen and a half…I'm too young to legally get married. And my dad is going to have a fit when he finds out I'm marrying the Devil…"

"Don't worry about it, we can wait until after college to get married, and about me being the devil…" He paused and bit his lip, as if mauling it over in his mind how he would tell me this. "Well…I'm not. Not anymore. This morning when I went to speak with my brother about Thorn, I also talked to him about this. I knew it would be difficult for you marrying the devil, so I decided that I had to make a few adjustments to my life so that we could be together, and…well…" He was nervous, rambling and speeding through parts. It was adorable.

I took his hand in mine and lightly squeezed. "What is it?"

"I decided that in order for us to be married, I had to become…human. Well, shaman I guess, but it's the same principle. I'm like you now. I still have some of my powers like poofing around places in my red smoke, and I can still control some of my fire powers, but other than that…" He smiled lamely and shrugged, awaiting my approval or rejection.

Again I launched myself into his arms and held him tight. "Thank you Lucifer." And I kissed him again. "Let's go visit my sister; I want to check up on her."

He nodded, taking a firm hold of me, and in a red poof of smoke, we were in the hospital room yet again. Hao sat on the edge of Ivy's bed, the two of them laughing and jabbering on like the pair of idiots they were. On the other side of the room were my sister and her boyfriend laying in bed just talking quietly.

"HOSHI!" Thorn would have jumped out of bed if she could have when she realized I was in the room.

I ran to her and threw my arms around my little sister. Tears streamed down my face like banners in the wind. "Oh my god Thorn, I thought I'd never see you again! I was so sure that you were going to die."

"Hoshi, I'm fine!" She reassured. "But if you keep holding on to me like that, you're going to strangle me. I can't breathe."

I let my hold on her go a little more slack, but not by much. "I'm so glad…" I held her and cried. We were twins. We weren't meant to be separated. Ever. I would be lost without her.

"I see Lucifer proposed." My twin motioned toward the ring on my finger.

"Uh huh." I nodded and smiled. "Isn't it the most beautiful thing you've ever seen?"

Akira rolled his eyes and got out of the bed so that I could sit down. He moved over to stand by Lucifer.

Thorn cast her gaze downward and looked sad all of the sudden. "Yes, the ring's lovely. Congratulations."

I picked up instantaneously on my sister's change of mood. "What is it?"

Her dark eyes met my ice blue ones. "Will you be leaving us then? Get your own house and everything?"

I hadn't thought of it like that. Lucifer and I would be getting our own place…wouldn't we? I looked to Lucifer, then back to Thorn. "I guess so…"

"Oh…" My twin's face conveyed a great deal of pain at her loss. Pain that I too felt. It made me reconsider marriage. I didn't want to leave.

I tried to console her and myself. "We're just engaged now…. We're getting married after college, so we still have a good five or six years…"

Behind us, Hao and Ivy had been whispering conspiratorially. They shared a glance, and then Hao spoke. "You know, the mansion is four stories with more than enough room for Ivy and myself, Thorn and Akira, and Lucifer and Hoshi to raise good sized families in. It's not like we're cramped for space or anything, and there's plenty of room for privacy."

Thorn looked overjoyed. "That means you can stay with us Hoshi! We'll never have to be torn apart! What do you say?" My younger twin seemed ecstatic.

I looked to my fiancée. "Would you like to move in with us?"

He shrugged and answered back with a smile. "It would make you happy, wouldn't it?"

I nodded. 'More than anything…'

"Then I'd love to."

And he did. Yes, things were indeed looking up, and my once dismal life didn't seem so bad anymore. I finally had a chance to be happy. We were all happy. Hao and Ivy had their occasional fights, as did Thorn and Akira, but we were more or less content.

I smiled and hugged my sister again. "Yes Thorn, we're a set; you can't have one without the other. We'll never be separated. I won't let that happen."

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Mikau: Thanks to all my reviewers, and I'll see you in the Epilogue!

Thanks To: Lady Valandario, Perfectly Imperfect, isa18, thoughtless dreamer, D, HAO-Addictive, yo wuz up, DarkPisces33, RainAngelSong, MiStraLL, Strawberry, Ayume Yamashira, Andrea Nefisto, demon thing, and KaZuYa MiNeKuRa.

To Strawberry: Great to have you back!

PLEASE REVIEW!


	49. Epilogue: Foliage

Mikau: Well, here we are. The final chapter of TBT. I would like to thank everyone for helping me get through the stress and the work load and the sickness of this past year. I've had a lot of fun working on this fic, and I'd just like to say that it was worth all the hard work. I hope you enjoy this chapter, and I think the next fic I will start on in the next few weeks will be a Judo fic. It will probably be around 20 chapters like this one was supposed to be. Ha. Ha. Ha. There I go again trying to predict how much I'm going to write. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the chapter. Thanks so much everybody!

**_Disclaimer:_** I don't own Shaman King.

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Epilogue: Foliage

I was tired and I felt absolutely, positively ill. I had finally gotten my youngest child, Yukio, to take his nap, so I had a little free time in which to feel sick. I sat down in the armchair next to Yukio's crib, and almost fell asleep, but unfortunately for me, I would not be allowed a nap.

"IVYYYYYYYY!" Thorn. She just couldn't bring herself to call me 'mother' or 'mom' or something like that. She just had to call me, "IVYIVY! IIIIVVYYYYYY!" Ivy. To her we were friends, not mother and daughter.

And of course all the noise woke the baby who was, up until that point, peacefully sleeping in his crib. Now with Yukio bawling and Thorn screaming, I wanted to shoot them, but instead I took a deep breath and quietly muttered my mantra, "Just because I'm six months pregnant, and have morning sickness and can't sleep, and have all sorts of cramps and a pounding headache, doesn't make it right to murder my children whom I love very much." I exhaled and picked up my crying child, bouncing him gently up and down.

"I'm in the nursery!" I called to my youngest daughter. I looked down at the baby boy in my arms. He looked back up at me with his beautiful sky blue eyes, and tugged on my shoulder-length tawny hair. I ruffled his own bright orange hair, and he giggled. It was moments like that when I loved being a mother. "Don't tell Hoshi and Thorn, but you're my favorite." I whispered, blowing on his stomach.

The little one year old laughed and laughed, all smiles. When his fit of giggles finally subsided, he batted at my chest and opened and closed his mouth. His way of saying "I'm hungry."

"Again? I just fed you, you little piggy." I gently nuzzled my baby and begrudgingly fed him again.

It was about right then when my husband happened to walk past in the hall, and stopped in the doorway to watch with a somewhat perverted, but mostly sappy grin on his face. Hao sauntered up behind me and sucked delicately on my neck. "I'm next after he's done."

I lightly nudged his shin with my foot. "Stop it; Yukio's right here." I tried to conceal my own playful grin.

"Oh come on; you know you want to." My husband wrapped his arms around my expanding waist and continued his assault on my neck.

"Hao, stop!" I couldn't help but break out in a fit of giggles. "Sure I want to, but we're supposed to be babysitting, and my sister would kill me if she knew that—" He cut me off as he slid in front of me and conquered my lips with his own. I held onto Yukio with one arm, and wrapped the other around Hao's neck.

"DAD! IVY!"

We separated our lips, but didn't let go of each other. I looked up and there was Thorn standing in the doorway.

She buried her face in her hands and sighed. "Figures I'd find you like this! You two are so indecent! I can't believe you; Yukio is right there!"

Hao chuckled semi-evilly. "Indecent? That's not indecent. Not even close."

He looked casually at me and winked. I picked up on my husband's scheme. "No, what would be really indecent is if you found us and we were—"

"—NO! NO! NO! I don't want to hear it!" She covered her ears, closed her eyes, and looked away, singing, "Sheltered, virgin ears! LA LA LA! I can't hear you! I can't hear you!"

My husband and I had a good laugh at the younger twin's expense. I rolled my eyes and smiled at her naivety. "Sweetheart, you're 19."

Hao grinned mischievously. "Yeah, haven't you gone any farther than first base with that boyfriend of yours?"

I softly elbowed Hao as Thorn turned bright pink. "DAD! Stop teasing me! For your information, I've done plenty with Akira."

"Like what? Held his hand? Wow Thorn, careful or else he might get you pregnant." Hao mocked.

The teenage girl turned her back to her father and snorted indignantly. "Fine. Be that way about it. Tease me, see if I care. I was going to tell you, but now I don't think I will."

"Tell us what?" I asked, taking the bait, unable to contain my curiosity.

"That I _am _pregnant, and Lucifer's the father." The room fell silent.

Hao and I both stared at her, unable to tell if she was teasing or telling the truth. 'She has been eating more lately…and her chest does look a bit fuller…' things along those lines flowed through my head.

"WHAT?" Hao gaped at the younger of our two daughters.

"You heard me: Lucy and I have been having an affair, and I'm going to be having his child." She peeked over her shoulder and tried to hide a guilty grin. She broke out in peals of laughter and turned around to stare at us. "You should see the looks on your faces! I'm not pregnant at all!" She barely managed to leak out through giggles. "I'd never help my sister's fiancée cheat on her! And I'd never sleep with someone before marriage! Who do you think I am? Hoshi? I'm still surprised that you believed me."

"Oh thank god." I uttered a sigh of relief.

"Please never do that to me again." Hao broke away from me and slumped in the armchair.

"Now that that's taken care of, what was it that you wanted Thorn?" I set Yukio in his crib and walked over to my daughter.

A look of enlightenment came over her face. "Oh yeah…. Ivy! The triplets won't leave me alone, and I have my exams this week, so I have to study, but they won't be quiet and let me, and Akira is going to be here to pick me up for our date in fifteen minutes, and I'm not going to make it through law school if I don't do well on exams, college is too hard, and I'm a total flop as a lawyer!" She buried her face in her hands again and sobbed. Yukio, upset by the amount of noise his older sister was making, started crying as well. It was moments like this that made me hate being a mother.

"Have you considered a career change?" Hao replied, picking up Yukio from his crib and bouncing him while making faces. "Maybe you should become an actress. Akira is doing pretty well, and maybe he could get you a job and you two could play opposite in something."

Thorn sighed and curled up in the now vacant armchair. "But I want to be a lawyer…."

In rushed three identical whirlwinds of trouble. My nieces, Anna's daughters, the triplets. Sumire: the wild brunette in purple for the flower she was named after (violet); Suiren: the imaginative, but somewhat ditzy blonde in pink for her name (water lily); and Momoiro: the sweet, demure redhead in red for her flower's name (rosy).

The three pushed and shoved and whined and moaned, making a fuss about anything they could think of. The triplets were frequently over at my house, but I didn't mind. They were adorable when the tried to be, and they had never broken anything extremely expensive. I was happy to baby-sit them; my poor sister deserved a break every once in awhile, and I positively adored the girls. Most of the time they were at the mansion was spent with Lucifer though. Sometimes Hao, Hoshi, or Thorn, but they absolutely adored their Uncle Lucy and Auntie Ivy.

Tough today they seemed to be obsessed with Thorn. "Thorn! Play with us! Please! Please!" They chorused. They had the most adorable habit of finishing each other's sentences and saying the same thing at the same time without having organized it beforehand.

"Not today. I have to study." The poor teen curled up even tighter into her ball on the armchair. She looked like a tortured animal, trying to escape her tormentors. "I think I'm going insane."

"If you'd like, I could give you a free session, Thorn." A new voice, the voice of my first child's psychiatrist-fiancée, drifted in from the hall.

The triplets turned around and jumped up and down when they saw who was there. "UNCLE LUCY! UNCLE LUCY!" The children rushed to the shirtless Lucifer standing in the doorway. "Hey! If it isn't my three favorite girls in the entire world!" He bent down and nuzzled each of them.

Hoshi walked up behind him and rolled her eyes. "I knew you didn't love me anymore. You were awful this morning, and now I know why; you like those three more than you love your own fiancée!"

Lucifer was wearing the same pants he had been wearing the day before, and that was pretty much all he was wearing. He didn't even have socks on, and his hair wasn't pulled up like usual. Instead he left it down, disheveled, and hanging partly in his face. Hoshi too looked less than presentable for two o'clock in the afternoon. She wore a baggy red T-shirt of Lucifer's and tight black biking shorts. She also had no socks or shoes on, and her hair was down and tousled. It wasn't hard to guess what they had been doing all that morning prior to their joint appearance in the nursery.

"Now, now Hoshi. Technically you're a woman, and you happen to be my favorite _woman _in the entire world. You know how much I love you Hosh." They exchanged sappy grins, and she kissed him lightly on the cheek.

"All right, I forgive you. I know you love me, and would be completely lost if I left you." Hoshi smiled and hugged her fiancée through her own small fit of giggles as he tickled her.

"Now tell me, was I really that bad this morning?" Lucifer kissed my eldest daughter lightly on the tip of her nose and gazed questioningly.

She bopped him lightly on the head and rolled her eyes, still smiling uncontrollably. "No, baka. I was just teasing. You were magnificent as always." Then they started kissing again.

Thorn covered her eyes and groaned. "Okay, back to my life! To recap: the triplets are annoying, exams are this week, Akira's coming, I have to study, and I'm a bad lawyer. Help me…."

Hoshi pulled away from her fiancée and suggested, "Lucy could take them off your hands, he's terrific with children, right Lucifer?"

The demon-boy looked like he was about to protest, but at the last second thought better of it. "Sure, I could take them to the park or something. You want to come with us Hoshi?"

"Sure, I'll meet you there; you go on ahead of me. Go with Uncle Lucy girls." The three girls nodded and followed after Lucifer like puppies. Hoshi walked over to Thorn and sat next to her on the arm of the chair. "You know, Hana really should be the one babysitting them. They are his siblings after all."

"Hana's got a job today, so he can't watch them." Hao informed her, still rocking Yukio back and forth in his arms. I smiled and thought what a good father he was.

"He was working last Sunday too…and all this week…you'd think male super models would get more days off…" Thorn sighed and looked up at the ceiling pensively. "You know, I'd never pictured Hana as a model, but I guess now that I think about it, it really does suit him. He's pretty enough for it…. And girly to boot."

"Are you okay?" The older sister addressed her twin. "You seem depressed." Thorn was about to answer, but Hoshi's pager went off. "Sorry, one second Thorn." She glanced down at the pager and sighed. "Great." She pulled out her cell phone and pushed speed-dial one. "Hey Lucy? It's me… Faust says he needs me at the clinic, so I can't go to the park with you guys. Are you going to be okay alone with those three?... Okay…all right…. If you say so…Okay, I'll see you later…. I love you too…. Bye." Hoshi turned to us and smiled apologetically. "Sorry, I have to go in to work at the clinic; one of the patients has suddenly taken a turn for the worse, and they need a few extra hands. I'll see you all later." She hugged each of us and kissed Yukio on the forehead. Turning to her sister and kissing her on the cheek as well, "Cheer up Thorn. It's not so bad. Everything will turn out okay."

"You're sure?" The younger twin moaned.

"Yeah, like totally." Hoshi smirked, winking at Thorn teasingly. "You'll see. Everything will be just fine." She patted her sister comfortingly on her knee and smiled, waving happily over her shoulder as she left to go change.

Thorn looked longingly at her sister's retreating back. "She's so confident and sure of herself…. When did Hoshi become such an optimist?"

"Since she met Lucifer." I sat down next to her in the chair and wrapped my arm around her in a half-hug.

"I wish I could be like that…knowing what I want out of life, and being able to get a good job right out of high school with absolutely no medical training whatsoever." Thorn's mood swiftly shifted from desolate and demure to a tone filled with vicious anger at her sister. "She's still in college for her medical degree and yet they still hire her! Where's the justice in that? Plus, isn't that illegal?"

"A lot of the things Hoshi does are illegal." Hao half-smiled, trying to comfort Thorn, but still teasing her at the same time.

Thorn sighed again, burying her face in her hands so that she could cry without us seeing.

Seeing that he had done more harm than good, my husband set Yukio back down in his crib and came over to sit on the arm of the chair and try to comfort Thorn. Hao rubbed her arm soothingly. "I'm sorry Thorn. Are you going to be okay?"

"You all have forgotten, haven't you?" The savage tone was back in my daughter's voice. "Today is the anniversary of Ivory's death. Four days after Jade died, the same day I was in the hospital. I got out of the hospital the day of her funeral and you guys took me to it, remember? She wrote that long, beautiful love letter to Hana and then she shot herself. She said that her life was empty and that she just wanted it to end. She said she wasn't bitter at all, but that she just wanted the pain to stop. Hana wouldn't come out of his room for days, don't you remember? Makoto and Akira, the both of them cried and cried and cried at her funeral. I didn't though. I couldn't. I was too numb to understand what was going on. Of course I knew, but nothing made sense, and I couldn't cry. I sat there thinking that it wasn't real, that she wasn't really dead. I sat there and convinced myself that she would be okay, and that she would come back like me, or you Ivy. She didn't though… She didn't… She just lay there, and it wasn't like in the stories you hear about how they look like they're asleep; she didn't look asleep at all. Her skin was almost completely white with all the blood drained from her face, and she didn't look like the girl I knew at all. It was awful. I mean really awful. I never cried, but I didn't go to school for a week. The musical was moved back a couple months, and we had to replace her…I hated it. I couldn't understand why she would do such a thing. 'Why would you want to kill yourself? She seemed so happy.' That's what I thought at first, but then I remembered what she had written. She said she 'had died for love because there is no greater cause in the world. Love fills the empty void within us, and keeps us alive. Without love and care a rose wilts and dies and then all you have left is a dried collection of petals on a thorn-covered stem. I am a neglected rose, and finally my time to die has come. Don't mourn for me, and don't tear yourselves to pieces on the thorns I leave behind. I'll be happier when I can no longer feel the pain of rejection. Don't get me wrong; I'm not bitter, just empty. Love is the only thing left for me, and so, I die for love.' She was perfectly happy about dying, and she didn't want us to be sad, she wanted us to go on being happy without her. But I still can't see what brought her to kill herself. I understand why she did it, love was the most important thing in the world to Ivory, but I could never bring myself to suicide. It would be too awful…but I feel empty too. I don't know what's important to me. I don't know what I can do to fill this gaping hole inside of me. I have Akira, and I know that he loves me, and I love him too, but I still don't feel complete. I'm missing something. A part of myself. I don't know what's important to me, and I don't know what I want in life, and I can't fill that void until I do." She curled up in my arms and cried.

I didn't know what to say. The poor thing had just poured her heart out to me, but I didn't have the words to respond. I looked to Hao for something, anything, a sign, a suggestion, but he only smiled back at me, and waited for me to say something on my own. I knew that smile. It was the 'You already know what to say.' grin.

I opened my mouth, and surprisingly, words came out. "You already know what you want. It's already inside of you; you just have to dig for it a little. You may feel depressed now, but someday soon you'll understand, and you'll fill that hole on your own. I felt the same way when I was little. You're never completely alone Thorn, you always have your family and friends to lean on." I kissed the top of her head and looked to Hao to see if I had done all right. His smile told me I had.

"Maybe you're right…M—er…Mom." She smiled uneasily at me.

But I hugged her nonetheless. "Oh good! We're making progress!"

She shook her head, smiled, and went to the living room to wait for Akira and maybe get some studying done.

Hao sat down next to me in the chair. "Do you think I'm a good parent, Hao?"

He grinned lazily and rolled his eyes. "Ivy, Ivy, Ivy…you have no self-confidence when it comes to parenting. Why do you constantly seek my approval?"

I lay my head on his chest. "Because I love you." I was about to lean in and kiss him, but baby Yukio started crying again.

I was about to get up, but Hao beat me to it. "You're pregnant, let me bring him to you. You've been in here with him all day, and you deserve at least a little time to relax."

I smiled widely at him as he handed me my baby. "Thanks Hao. Hey Yuki? What's up?" Yukio stopped crying for the most part once he was in my arms, but still remained fussy. "I guess he doesn't like it when I call him 'Yuki'."

Hao retook his seat next to me. "The original Yukio, my friend from a thousand years back, didn't like it either. He had fits when I called him that." Yukio caught a bit of his father's hair and gave it a hard tug. "Ow! What was that for? I'm not the one who called you that, she was. Get her!" Hao gestured towards me.

It was all I could do not to laugh as Yukio yawned and laid his head on my chest. "He's a mommy's boy; he wouldn't."

"Yeah, yeah." Hao smirked mischievously and tugged lightly on my hair himself. "So, what's the next one going to be?" He rested a hand on my stomach.

I rolled my eyes and glared. "You know perfectly well. I've told you plenty of times it's going to be another girl."

"I know. I just love hearing you say it." He smirked and nibbled at my ear.

"Stop teasing me just because I wanted another boy." I wanted to elbow him, but I couldn't because I was still holding Yukio.

"It will be fun having another girl. You've never raised a girl before." I could see him smirking behind me.

"I suppose you're right…we can always have more if I still want another boy after this. We need to think of a name though…" I closed my eyes and listened to the sound of Hao's heartbeat and breathing, in time with my own.

"How about Fern?" He suggested.

I shook my head. "No, we have enough floral names in our family already."

"What's one more then? I guess if you don't like the name Fern, how about—"

"—How about we name her later?" I cut in, feeling tired and no longer quite in the mood to discus our next child's name.

"That works too, I guess…" Hao shrugged. "I love you." He whispered in my ear as I drifted off to sleep.

I somehow managed to mumble back, "I love you more." And then fell asleep.

An ivy vine cannot stand on its own, so it clings to walls and trees. And so the woman Ivy clung to many people and things to get her through her lifetime. God knows she never would have made it on her own without the help of her loved ones. That is how this tale was possible: family and friends.

Once upon a time there was a child named Judo who lived in a constant nightmare. She transformed into a girl named Ivy who died and was revived but then died again. It was then that she became the woman Valerie for a long, long time. But Valerie faded away into nothing, and the woman Ivy returned. And lived. Not always so 'Happily Ever After'. But she did live.

_**The**_

_**End**_

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To "Mikauzoran" the flamer: Hello, and first off, get your own penname, loser, this one is mine. And second, I absolutely abhor the phrase "you suck". I would never say that, so next time you impersonate me, do it right. Also, another one of my pet peeves is writing in all caps, so that's another thing to add to the list of things not to do. I really don't understand flamers; I write really, really long fics, and if you hate them so much, why would you waste your time reading the whole thing and then flaming it. If you are going to critique my work, okay, do it like all the rest of the reviewers: say what you thought could use improvement, don't just randomly insult me. Even D: tells me what he thinks I could add to my story to improve it. Also, I think you made D: extremely mad by flaming me; he seems to be a bit possessive. Better luck next time.

Thank you to everyone who has ever reviewed: MaiValentinefan, KaZuYa MiNeKuRa, Lady Valandario, Brilliance of the Moon, Fish and Chips, MiStraLL, Kiva Kyoyama, Touch of the Wind, keiiris, basseygirl, Milly, evelyn619, ChibiAzn3, LiVingIntHedEpthsofHeLl, Danny, Knux33, Strawberry, Andrea Nefisto, LisaTheHedgehog, cutie1789, DarkPisces33, hmmmm…., yo wuz up, clamp school, HAO-Addictive, Gin no Inari, hannah, lil.blu.clover, ShadowYasha, dragonsunlight, Shamanbabe, oo, y0ur-w0rst-nightmARee, Hemila-Rose, my favorite flamer D, Lizzie;, Firebane5, Kara, IvyaLLurE13, ivyxhao 4eva, mEguMi-cHaN13, ChibiKitsune, -BeLLe33-, the flamer D0-NUT D0MIN0 Derick, AMERICANIDIOT75, sUppI, yeke, Hannah/Akira'sbeggestfan, Sonseray, Katie-juliett, chibigirl, aN1mE rAwKz, RainAngelSong, Nakuru-chan, Jade, kari tao (ren's little sister), demon thing, GothicShamaness13, souloverdrive, Winged-Wolf01, UntitledSorrow, isa18, LilacBreeze, thoughtless dreamer, Tippy-chan, K.K. Tori, D; the flamer impersonator, BrokenHeartsVille, Who Cares, Marina, none, achol0bl3ssU, Ishimaru Miwa, Black Butterfly, Ayume Yamashira, Perfectly Imperfect, Eternal Lilacs, and Serena.

Thank you everyone! PLEASE REVIEW!


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